Dear Dr. Spilchuk,

I have read many articles on ISR, used their services regularly and seen ISR's frustrating efforts to improve and protect the experiences teachers and administrators have overseas. I commend ISR and you for your valiant uphill battle against corrupt, avaricious and unethical international "schools", recruiters and IS owners. My experience in Mexico and Kuwait was a microcosm of the international dilemma. This experience seems to be shared by a disproportionate number of teachers and administrators, all of whom are professionals, only asking to be treated fairly and honestly.

It seems to me that, despite some horrific reviews and some prejudice and bias on the part of reporting teachers, the majority of the ISR reviews reflect pretty accurately their personal and professional experiences. I can confirm this by reading the reviews from my former schools and by keeping in touch with colleagues who have gone to other schools.

What seems to be the pattern in the case of failing or disreputable international schools is
the following:

1) Lack of transparency right from the beginning, including the recruiters' lack of openness and the administration's duplicity. The schools have all gotten rid of honest professional leaders and replaced them with willing bootlickers.

2) An extreme dearth of pedagogical leadership, where "businessmen and women" prioritize profits well before ethics, quality or equity. These schools are cash-cows, often parent manipulated and "managed" for the benefit of a rich few.

3) Teaching staff (and often administrators as well) are considered as "hired help", to be treated like servants, albeit educated ones, but servants none the less. They are not seen as deserving equal treatment to the rich students, families or owners and if one dares to insist on their signed contract being respected, they are treated as troublemakers or disloyal.

4) Pleasing and calming parents' demands are more important than actually educating students. Attempts at disciplining wayward students who feel they are entitled to high grades because they show up and smile are actively discouraged and honest teachers are threatened if they don't play along with this charade.

5) When a teacher gets into difficulties in an International School, they rarely if ever receive the kind of support and mentoring they may need to eventually succeed. It is easier for them and the school to break contract or leave at the end of contract (if they can last that long) and go to a new " adventure". IS's are revolving doors because it suits both the administration, the teachers and the parents to some extent. Hope springs eternal in the human breast, so to speak.

5) To complete the circle, if one gets "in trouble" with a school (or for that matter a powerful parent), one can find oneself blackballed by the Band of Brothers (ie: rotten school owners and their cabal of recruiters) and forced to explain themselves over and over again to suspicious DG's and school representatives at Fairs, or worse still, unable to even get an interview.

6) The current situation where teachers are powerless before a Mafia of owners, Boards and recruiters that have their own interests at heart and have little legal recourse both at home and abroad, is not likely to change anytime soon, since these mobsters have too much to lose and teachers have no effective way of creating a solid front to fight them. We all know that there are many excellent, well-run, honest and caring schools, both owner and Board managed, out there but there are too many teachers willing to go anywhere for a job and too many who unwittingly remain ignorant of what these schools hold in store for them.

What solutions can we offer in the near future to remedy this deteriorating situation? Here are
a few:

1) If ISR could manage it, they should attend any Fairs open to them and have a booth that tells the truth about the bad schools and conversely highlights the great and good schools. In lieu of that, they could hand out advertisements about the ISR web site and solicit active memberships.

2) ISR might have to eventually evolve into a different or ancillary vocation; that of an International Teachers' Union or Solidarity movement. If this happened, ISR could have a tremendous impact on bad schools' success in trying to recruit naive and needy teachers. If crap schools knew that ISR was protecting and guiding staff away from them, they might actually take positive actions to remedy their lacunae.

3) The ISR designed code of ethics (Bill of Rights) must be adopted by as many schools as possible and educators advised about which schools honour this Code. One way to do this is to send this code to every International School with an advisory that, signing this Code and adhering to it will allow ISR to promote that fact to their membership online.

4) ISR has to recruit more DG's and owners to join its ranks since ISR is still seen as a teacher oriented site and one that is overly and often unjustly critical of management and administration. There are many more ways to improve the International situation, such as involving the U.S. State department for schools that are sponsored by them, promoting courses in teacher's colleges that prepare teacher graduates for the International job hunt and so on. If we are serious about International Education, we can change it just like we did for National education standards in North America and Europe!

An ISR Supporter
_______________

Dear ISR Supporter,

Thank you so much for your very valued input. I will ask the Editor at ISR to post your letter on my blog for Mid August 2008 as I feel you have put your finger on the heart of concerns currently being experienced by international teachers.

There may come a time when an International School Teacher's Union will become necessary. The difficulties in creating such an institution are over-whelming at the moment, however, as unions traditionally negotiate contracts with the various educational facilities and today we are talking in the thousands. In the meantime, ISR will continue to use the local media, our own web site, international education conferences and whatever other pressures we can bring to bear upon unethical schools, including on occasion, contact with member embassies, to ensure that word about these renegade institutions gets out.

We are working diligently to develop relationships with recruitment agencies and fervently hope that accrediting organizations will also take head of this situation. Clearly, there is a growing teacher shortage. That alone will drive those who can summarily eliminate poor schools from the International School scene to act. The strongest force ISR can muster right now comes from members like yourself, however. We continue to need teachers who are willing to speak honestly and openly about their experiences teacher to teacher and who are willing to advise others of the pitfalls at various schools.

I am so saddened when teachers I have worked with, or have listened to and advised at length, become self-protective in the end and will not consider the greater good of sharing their stories with other colleagues on ISR. This self-protectionism needs to change for the international teaching body to become united in their goal to eliminate poor international schools.

Thank you for sharing,

Barbara