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#1 Parent Turino - 2009-05-26
Re: Suzhou Foreign Language School, Suzhou, China

Teachers looking for an easy ride in the classroom will not seek a post at your school.In contrast,those who are,or wannabe,teaching heroes will.But then that's in line with your school's philosophy,the customers come first,and teachers are providing a service - exactly how Pizza Hut and the like operate.The main difference is you're providing education,whereas they're providing grub!

#2 Parent Kevin - 2009-05-26
Re: Suzhou Foreign Language School, Suzhou, China

Look, I can do it too:

Anonymity is a tool which the foolish cherish.

L'anonymat est un outil que les idiots aiment.

I've never studied French a day in my life! Thank you Babelfish.com!

And thank you to those who have come to my defense as well as the school for which I am happily employed. Anytime someone leaves a school under less than stellar conditions they are going to be understandably bitter. This "StephanieB" must have one or two REALLY good connections at our school to be able to "hear" and "understand" and "know of" so many supposed goings on of Suzhou Foreign Language School. How s/he would "hear" about things since (allegedly) being gone from early NOVEMBER (not December, sorry) of 2008 - - more than six months - - while recuperating in the south of France is beyond me, but again, s/he may have a good source within our school walls.

As far as I'm concerned, the "debate" is over. We have LONG since moved on from the 2008 Stefanie . . . situation and we are now moving on from our recent angry teacher departure. I urge all those seeing red at some of these rather absurd postings to let it go. I think the situation(s) is/are now in the past and our school isn't bemoaning the loss(es). Let "StephanieB" and his/her supporters here pat each other on the back and commiserate with each other. Responding with testimonials to what surely falls on deaf ears (or rather blind eyes as it were with the internet) seems counter-productive at best. I hope your typical, average future teacher will read all the posts in this thread and land on the side of sanity. SFLS is a very good school and has been a very good employer. I enjoy the company of all teachers who are currently in our department (both foreign and Chinese) and am eager to welcome new teachers into the fold in late August. But don't think I'm going to shy away from calling out those that can't perform their jobs adequately. Each teacher is going to get observed regularly, each teacher is going to get my professional and honest feedback, and each teacher is going to have ample opportunity to ask me and the long-term teachers any question they need to in order to address their concerns. I generally can tell within a week or two of talking with and observing a teacher whether or not he or she can cut the mustard. The school pays me to give my opinions based on my experience and background. If that doesn't sit well with some now defunct teachers, so be it.

At the end of the day, it's not about the teachers. It's about the students. If a teacher can't or won't do his/her job to satisfy the needs of the students AND if the teacher is not willing or capable of changing teaching methods or teaching styles to accommodate their students, then they can certainly seek and find employment elsewhere, thank you. If my school has had problems with me and my teaching and my meager managerial input, then I'm sure I would have heard about it by now. No, what I get are compliments and awards and bonuses. I'm not saying that to brag by any means; I'm saying that to counter this whole "he-used-to-work-at-a-Pizza-Hut-in-the-1980s" mentality (something, by the way, I've never mentioned to Stefanie, but did talk about with our recently departed teacher - - hmmmm).

So, naysayers and rumor-mongers, please continue with your diatribes and mean-spirited jabs. I hate to say it, but I'll probably continue to read them (I can't help myself), but I no longer need to respond (not that I even needed to in the first place!). Thank you to "Alex" and to "Rabble" and to the other person whose online name I can't remember right now. I beg of you, don't bother any longer with this. It's not worth it and it's generally hopeless to continue. Take care and good health to all.

#3 Parent Alex - 2009-05-26
Re: Suzhou Foreign Language School, Suzhou, China

The previous post shows you the quality of Stephanieb. They don't come much lower. A very spiteful man.

#4 Parent stephanieb - 2009-05-24
Re: Suzhou Foreign Language School, Suzhou, China

Dear Friends,

First of all, several points.

I have been made aware of a very vital fact to all of the discussions here.

The moderator of this board has written to kev7161@hotmail.com to enjoin him from using OTHER PEOPLE'S email addresses when posting on this board. Apparently, he was simply appropriating e-mail addresses at random from the web and then writing emails to this board and signing them with the owner's purported addresses. Can you believe that? But as the Good Lord will have it, he was caught in the act.

In any case, the board caught him up to his tricks...because they monitor the IP addresses of all posts and all of these different posts, most of which were not published here, were being sent from the same IP address.

NOW, WHAT DOES THAT SAY ABOUT THE QUALITY OF THE PERSON? Does it make him and his witness testimony believable? Does it render him credible? Of course not..it impugns everything he writes and stands for.

Second of all, the email from the second grade teacher at SFLS might be true...I believe I know whom she is. Kevin surrounds himself with women issued from severly failed marriages whose husbands demolished them. Because they have demolished housewife syndrome, they are easily manipulated by Kevin. They were part of the wolfpack that would wander into my classroom and "re-educate" me and offer me the most vicious comments possible. Sweet, helpful, kind co-workers? Hardly...Lucretia Borgias on the loose, part of the Kevin-wolf pack, venomous as they come. They were the only ones that survived and when he needed to destroy another teacher, he would turn them on the loose first as part of his demolishment tactics. I pity them. Middle-aged bitter fellow sisters with no future in life. And no love for mankind.

Of course they saw nothing. They heard nothing. They witnessed nothing. Just like they saw nothing and heard nothing and said nothing when their husbands cheated on them, and ran around, and drank, and all of the other stories that we would hear about the going-ons. It's classic beaten wife syndrome, a la 1955.

But we are straying from the issues. First, to Turnoi, to Turnol and Silverboy, je vous embrasse de tout coeur. Merci infiniment de votre aimable reconfort. Your kindness in allowing me to tell what vicious events befell me and to fend off the vicious Kevin and all of his many false identities has allowed me to continue with the healing process. Yes, I had to write what I write hear. It is part of my therapy and my healing, as a person, as a woman, and as a teacher. I shall never, ever, ever allow myself to be battered again the way this person -- and his wolfpack -- battered me.

And to all other posters reading this long thread, the message remains clear -- Suzhou Foreign Language School is a school to avoid at all costs. To enter therein is to pass the gates of hell.

A tous qui m'ont aide, je vous envoie l'expression de mes remerciments les plus sinceres. Comme disent les italiens -- "rigramziamo malto".

Bises a tous,

Mme S. de B.

#5 Parent SFLS teacher - 2009-05-23
Re: Suzhou Foreign Language School, Suzhou, China

Silverboy:
I am also a teacher at this same school. I have been here for almost 2 years. This school is somewhat typical of many Chinese schools - I don't agree with some of their ideas and ways of doing things, but after all, I made the decision to come China, and I knew what I was doing.

I totally disagree with what Stephanie has written based on my own experiences. No, I was NOT in the classroom with her at the same time; I am telling what I have experienced myself. I have never seen anything like what she describes. I have never seen the behavior she describes by this "manager" (really another foreign teacher, and NOT a manager at all), and I have worked in the same department as him for almost 2 years now. SHE was here for 2 1/2 months. I covered some of her classes after she left. I know what the situation was like when I went to her classroom.

You ask what 'qualified' teachers are: from what I see at this school, qualified teachers are those who try to do the work they are being paid for. Am I a 'qualified' teacher? I hope so. Am I a "real" (certified) teacher? No, but I teach the curriculum that the school pays me to teach. Is this curriculum ludicrous or outrageous? No, typical 2nd grade spelling, phonics, math lessons.

How are 'unqualified' teachers treated? From what I have witnessed, their contracts are simply NOT renewed. At times, I hoped that some of the unqualified teachers (read: those with their own agenda - this is NOT directed at Stephanie at all) would have been asked to leave early, but this never happened. I heard complaints from the students who had to learn under these 'unqualified' teachers. These teachers caused stress and chaos for the students and the other foreign teachers. However if asked to leave, the teachers left behind would carry the weight of the classes (if they agreed) until another teacher could be found. So sometimes keeping these teachers on was the lesser of two evils.

Stephanie's story rings true? Okay, that is your opinion, but now I am telling another story, and I was also at this same school at the same time. I have nothing to gain from writing this. I liked Stephanie when she was here. I don't know where she is now or what she is doing. I have no reason to hurt her or speak ill about her. However, I do feel justified in telling another side of the story from someone who was not involved in the immediate situation.

Raouls has credibility? Okay, then you must know more than I. I am wondering, however, if they investigated this allegation, or simply reprinted the story told to them. If that is the case, do you think they will simply reprint my story too? Will this rectify the situation? Probably not. But just as you said, most who tell lies are caught out, and that goes BOTH ways. If Raouls simply prints any complaint from a poster, then I will NOT trust that site. Thanks for the heads up!

As for your last comment indicating the respondent's reply as 'peddling crap' - then I guess you are NOT interested in fairness at all. Remember there is more than one side to every story!

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