I really cant see how a site like this can be useful when people just go off half-cocked. It is akin to a youtube comment section, or even a Justin Bieber fansite or something, excepting a few rare comments that are actually well considered. Unfortunately, you have to scroll down past a whole bunch of irrelevancy and idiocy to find them.

Frankly, there is little way to tell how good any of the teachers on here are, and the only way to judge a school is to visit or to make judgements yourself in a similar way to which you would weigh any job opportunity, albeit from a distance. To be paranoid and fearful is no way to live, and it certainly won't help you in many avenues of life.

I won't name names, but I do have concerns about the character of some of the people here. For example, I wouldn't want my kids to be taught by someone who thinks the best way to express oneself is to be aggressive, rude, and with a strength and loudness not supported by any clear argument or apparent intellect whatsoever.

There are several such people on here and it all seems a bit strange to me.

I am a 4-year qualified teacher, well respected by my peers, students and their parents. I am strongly considering spending the next 3-5 years travelling and I am stunned at the character of these threads/conversations and would be interested to see the real-life version. Imagine the faces behind these comments. Imagine their ability to have a civilised conversation, and imagine the behaviour and attitude they would be modelling for children, presuming that they are, in fact, teachers of any repute at all. A bit worrying, regardless of educational context.

Maybe there should be a site where ESL teachers rate schools they have visited... No, wait, we will still just have to read a bunch of nonsense.

Good luck everybody, and make sure you consider your options wisely and appropriately rate the various opinions before taking things on board.