Ah, but what you probably don't know is that I've lived in Suzhou for many years. Over all those years I had a lot of real-time, in-the-flesh friends who spent time at SIFLIS...people who sat down often and talked to me face-to-face. And I'd wager that few of them- there's one notable exception here- are any of the names currently involved in this drama.

So, yeah, actually, I've accumulated quite a lot of pretty direct data about this particular school. Enough, at least, that I kinda feel I know what I'm talking about and am not merely passing on wild internet rumors or the axe-grindings of a single disgruntled individual.

NOT ONE of these people ever had a kind word to say about Suzhou Foreign Language School; ALL took the first exit they could get from the place. And the stories were remarkably similar to many of the current ones...terrible location, remarkably inept administration even by Chinese school standards, Residence Permit shenanigans, payroll shenanigans (both timing and amount), exceptionally high teacher turnover rate, abuse of teachers by staff (foreign and domestic), abuse of students by staff (foreign and domestic), and more.

It's hard for me to come to any other rational conclusion: This is very potentially one of the worse schools you could ever possibly find to work for in China. You'd be foolhardy- or at least tragically under-informed- to ever accept a job at this place.

Unfortunately, there do seem to be some little games going on on BOTH sides of the current argument- both those with the school, and among some of those tearing it down.

It makes it hard to tell who the good guys are, when there aren't any...

Anyway, I'm really glad you know about our site now. I'm actually a big fan of ESL Teachers' Board, although I don't get much chance to come over this way...but there's always room for more than one arena. You should come on over some time. (Again, that's http://www.raoulschinasaloon.com) I can at least promise you that everyone there tends to eventually get whatever reception they really deserve. ;-{)