Wally,

Forgive my lack of insight, if I'm wrong (a limitation of mine), but your point in a nutshell is:

'Don't come to China unless you're a trained teacher who will work or at least apply for a post at an international school. Generally all other schools and posts are breeding grounds for abuse where you will never really be considered a teacher or be given any respect.'

You've made a good point, but there are two points worth considering. First of all given the track record of China and the fact that many international schools in China are still often run under Chinese administration can you be sure that foreign teachers will not run into any of the common problems FTs run into at other schools? e.g: Broken promises, lying and cheating, and disinterested students.

Undoubtedly there is great credence in a teacher stating that they've been TRAINED to teach, and thus being able to say that they are a TRULY qualified teacher. But couldn't we phrase it more succintly and say? :

' A truely qualified teacher is one who has a proven track record of helping, motivating, and guiding his students to effeciently increase their learning of whatever discipline he has been teaching.'

Admittedly the above criteria is often hard to guage, but is it not true? We can talk until the cows come home about qualifications, degrees and teacher training (and I'm not saying any of that is invalid), but I have witnessed teachers in China with the ALPHABET after their name, with doctorates from big name universities in the States, who not only did'nt seem to have a clue in the classroom, but didn't seem very much motivated either.

Of course as teachers we all want to be respected as professionals. What every teacher should consider though is whether he's more concerned with IMAGE or CONTENT. (I'm talking to teachers in general here) Are you a good teacher because:

You carry around a wad of degrees from Harvard, and MIT etc., because you have letters after your name, and you are a doctor of this and a professer of that, and you've trained at this school, and have that certificate, and people pat you on the back, bow, and address you as Sir, and you work at the most prestigous university in the universe, and...?

Or,

are you a good teacher because you love your job and take pride in it, you like and care about your students, and you're in class everyday on time fully prepared. Because you really want your students to learn and if there's anything holding you back from increasing their learning, for instance a lack of teaching skills or subject knowledge, you are going to damn well work hard at it everyday, forever, and keep on improving those two fundementals through application, experience and research?

How true it is when people say teaching ESL is not rocket science. It is an art, and a not too difficult one either. You do need heart, desire, sympathy, determination and patience etc. We don't have to work at international schools to be teachers in China or anywhere else. Fundementally, It doesn't matter where you work, or WHO considers you a teacher or not, students excepted. Wherever you work, make your classroom you're own little world. Leave the politics and swaggering outside of the classroom. The only location that's important is the classroom. It's what goes on in there that matters! It's just yourself and the students.

Whether you are a qualified teacher depends on your pride in the job and the results gained from your ATTITUDE to teaching ESL.

What kind of teacher are you?