Why wait on your contract to expire? If you're unhappy in your present job, quit and go somewhere else. If you don't like it at your second school, quit and go somewhere else. If you don't like it at your third school........You get the picture.

My point is that turnover is a great way to send a message to the powers in China that we won't put up with what you talk about in your post.

Sure, changing jobs is expensive for us, but so is the opportunity cost of sitting around waiting on the job that pays what we want to magically appear, or putting up with unscrupulous schools who rip us off while we finish up a contract.

Replacing employees is expensive, and employers will get the message fast if we teachers start heading for the exits en masse. When you stay at a job you hate or a job that is more trouble than it's worth, you send positive reinforcement to your employer that 'all is well'. In other words, nothing will change. Let him see you and the next five to ten white faces walking away from him, suitcases in hand(s) after only a few weeks on the job, and we'll quickly see better treatment in China.

Of course, there's always the 747 solution. You go down to the nearest airport, get a plane ticket to somewhere else, and fly the hell outta China and be done with it forever.

HZ