What do I say, "Turnoi"? I say these are unfounded accusations, distortions of the truth and outright lies. I also say that you are just as culpable as is our mystery, anonymous detractor because you only care about one side of the story. Someone called you "Dr. Tornoi"... well, how about applying some of those doctoral principles to the information that you read and right. You have one, ONE person spouting gibberish about a school. A school about which you have no first-hand knowledge, in a city you've never visited, in a country you seem to know little about. Yet you have tried and convicted Ealing without KNOWING anything about the situation. Are your comments, suppositions and defamation even fair, in the least? If I decided to make up a story about you, and had someone else come online and start the same "piling on" that you are all doing here, would that be fair to you? Of course not, and I would be wrong to do it. As you ALL are wrong in the way you are approaching this situation.

It seems everyone has an axe to grind with Chinese schools "acting Western", with Chinese schools trying to make a profit, with Chinese schools in general. Our whining detractor complains about things that happen every day, everywhere. When I was in America, I had an hour and a half commute every day. Did I expect my employer to reimburse me for my travel expenses? Did I expect them to knock the travel time off of my required working hours? No. Of course not. What we are fighting here, in addition to the heavy rules and regulations piled on my the local government, is the "entitlement... we are special" mentality by so many of the foreign ESL teachers here. They whine about a 30 hour work week. They whine about meetings and "extra" work which they are ASKED to do, not pressured. We get outrageously high salaries and special treatment compared to the local staff, yet whine and complain when someone doesn't wipe our bum for us. Is it any wonder the Chinese AND Western managers lose patience with our spoiled little kid attitudes? By the way, I speak from experience as, I am one of the whiny spoiled brats... not yet completely recovered.

In any case, I ask that you all take a step back, take a deep breath, then view this objectively. Who is making the allegations? We don't know, they remain anonymous. What supporting evidence do they provide? None. So far everything is sensationalized hearsay. Who of the detractors are currently in Dalian, or even in China, to be aware of current conditions here? (government regulations, etc.) No one, I believe. Does this sound like a fair basis from which to attack a school, which has already successfully placed students in England? I still keep in touch with those of my students who have gone overseas, and I can tell you that I am darned proud of them. Let us not allow on person's bitterness to snowball into a situation that benefits no one.

Sincerely,
Scott A. Murphy

24 Dandong Jie, Apt#2110
Zhongshan District
Dalian, PRC 116001