Anybody want to open their own school?

If I knew of anyone doing this, I would be on the phone to the cops and the MOE pronto. I, and countless other foreigners, have gone to the expense and trouble of owning and operating a legitimate language school. Our teachers are legal and have had criminal record checks. Our schools have passed fire codes and safety inspections. Our buildings are deemed safe and appropriate for the kinds of businesses we’re running. We are legally liable to our customers (the students’ parents) to compensate them to some degree if they wish to pull out of the programme. We are responsible members of society and pay our taxes.

It took me a long time to get here, but I work within the system, and I’m still making money, even in this economy. Anyone who is trying to take the easy road of illegality and still “compete” with legal enterprises should rightfully be looking over their shoulder every step of the way. :no-no:

[quote=“Maoman”]If I knew of anyone doing this, I would be on the phone to the cops and the MOE pronto. I, and countless other foreigners, have gone to the expense and trouble of owning and operating a legitimate language school. Our teachers are legal and have had criminal record checks. Our schools have passed fire codes and safety inspections. Our buildings are deemed safe and appropriate for the kinds of businesses we’re running. We are legally liable to our customers (the students’ parents) to compensate them to some degree if they wish to pull out of the programme. We are responsible members of society and pay our taxes.

It took me a long time to get here, but I work within the system, and I’m still making money, even in this economy. Anyone who is trying to take the easy road of illegality and still “compete” with legal enterprises should rightfully be looking over their shoulder every step of the way. :no-no:[/quote]

Very true.

What happens when little Johnny Huang trips over and hits his head on something necessitating a trip to the ER? With a properly run legal school, that’s going to be covered by insurance. When it’s a fly-by-night thing run from your apartment, you are going to be personally liable. You’re going to have angry parents to deal with without any legal backup. And the money may turn out to be the least of your worries.

Do things properly or don’t do them at all.

Maoman: The parents get what they pay for. I’m all for complete deregulation within the marketplace (not just in education) and giving people even more choice. Regulation stifles competition and innovation. If people value those extra things you provide, then you shouldn’t have any problems. It sounds like you want to impose those extra things (and the associated costs) on people who don’t necessarily want them. This is what I like about Taiwan and why I have almost certainly abandoned the extended nanny states of the West. Here they do let people make their own choices, for better or worse.

[quote=“surfr3”]This conversation has become very interesting people and it’s cool to hear your different views. A few years ago I opened my home to all kinds of students and have had a couple hundred in the door. Adult group lessons 6-10 people, kids 8-10 in the group. Very few problems with neighbors because we keep a good rapport with them.

However someone did call the cops eventually and they showed up at our door, thank God they didn’t come when the place was full of kids and parents. My wife just denied everything and they took off, haven’t seen them since. We think it was a local school that called.

If you keep the groups small you can do it almost anywhere. My problem is that most of them come from our immediate area which is a limited market. To travel and do the group thing isn’t cost effective if the fee is too low. This summer I’ve had groups contact me from all over Taipei county but they want a super low fee. Well, I have to pay for transportation, parking, time etc. so I declined. One woman wanted me to go up Yang Ming mountain but she doesn’t want to pay squat for it. People here can really be selfish. They don’t think about the foreigner, just their cost.

Anyway, there are many different scenarios for teaching under the radar and it’s good to be flexible with the location if possible. Key is keeping the overhead and travel time-costs down. :sunglasses:[/quote]

I hear you entirely about some people wanting to pay unrealistically low fees. By the time you factor in travel times, in some cases, they want you to teach for 300NT/hour. What’s the point? In such a case, you might as well go and work for someone else and get more and do it legally (if you need an ARC).

What I would probably do is get a T.A. from a local university, and outsource all the grind work for 100-150NT/hour. For a flat sum of say 400NT for a two hour lesson, you could probably get them to do a lot of your running around also. They’d get way more than they could in any other job, plus some experience, and you’d save a lot of money/free up more time time to teach additional classes. I’d perhaps get them to teach a grammar class on one day while I did more on the speaking on another day. I’d certainly have a very user-friendly curriculum that would cut down my unpaid hours as much as possible and get them to do the homework marking, etc.

Another idea I kind of stumbled upon was the idea of getting connections within the public system. We have a fair degree of contact with local elementary schools where I teach, and one of the student teachers at such a school wanted someone to do language exchange with, so one of my colleagues put her in touch with me. We started talking about trying to set up after school programmes at her or other schools, though she’s in the midst of exams/applications for jobs for all that now and it probably won’t ultimately pan out. Regardless, in the future, I would do one of two things. I would either set up a couple of language exchanges with elementary school teachers as a way to start this kind of thing up. Or, I would approach schools and offer to run a super cheap class for Taiwanese English teachers (say, 100NT/hour each) to build up the contacts and then pitch the idea to them to set up an after school programme, with me getting a cut, and the school getting a cut, but still keeping the costs down for parents. If you’re talking about a local school having say, 2,000 students, it’s not hard to imagine that they could throw together a couple of classes of 20 kids for you. Even if you only had one taker initially out of twenty or thirty schools that you approached, once word got around, other schools would be keen on the idea and you could probably even sub-contract to some other foreigners. Regardless, again, you’d cut the buxibans out of the deal and everyone would benefit: students, parents, schools and yourself. Of course, it would also be difficult for a local buxiban to take on a school principal, so you’d almost certainly be better shielded from that side of things. :smiley:

Like I keep saying, a lot of buxibans are swimming against the current of market forces that will squeeze them out. Who am I to deny the parents what they want? :wink:

[quote=“cfimages”]Very true.

What happens when little Johnny Huang trips over and hits his head on something necessitating a trip to the ER? With a properly run legal school, that’s going to be covered by insurance. When it’s a fly-by-night thing run from your apartment, you are going to be personally liable. You’re going to have angry parents to deal with without any legal backup. And the money may turn out to be the least of your worries.

Do things properly or don’t do them at all.[/quote]

Why is little Johnny Huang running around in the first place?

Secondly, under what I’m talking about, the onus would be on someone else. Like I keep saying, you don’t do this out of your apartment.

Regardless, that’s the risk everyone takes for getting involved in something dodgy. It’s Darwinian in the same sense that people riding around with their kids on scooters without helmets is. I wouldn’t do it, but it’s up to them if they want to risk their kids’ heads being split open.

Git,

You are clearly one of those foreigners who thinks Taiwan doesn’t have laws. You are likely to find out the hard way that it does and that they especially apply to foreigners.

Feiren: Really, how would I find out the hard way? I’ve clearly stated several times that I would not run anything out of my own place for the very reasons listed above. To a local observer, I’d hardly be a fish worth frying because I’d be doing a series of unconnected privates. They wouldn’t see the bigger picture. Or, I’d have some sort of agreement with a school. Likewise, if something happened to a kid, I’d be either in someone else’s apartment with at least one, if not several, Taiwanese parents or again, I’d be in a school, so they’d be liable. Are you really telling me that if I worked in a buxiban and something happened to a kid because of my negligence that just because the buxiban had insurance and I had an ARC there that I’d be any better off, and they wouldn’t want to play pinata with the foreigner? The buxiban would be better off, but I’d still lose my job, still probably have to pay someone off, still probably have to go to have a serious talk with the police and/or a magistrate and probably still end up kicked out of the country.

There are laws here, but there’s an enormous grey area. How many of those buxibans out there are “legal”? How many of those kindergartens out there are legal? (We all know the answer to that question.) Why do you think they know in advance there’s a raid coming? Here’s scenario 1: you’re legitimate, and you pay money to someone in the government. Here’s scenario 2: you’re illegitimate, and you pay money to someone in the government. Really, what exactly is the difference between the mob and the government other than the illusion of legitimacy? What is the difference between one guy shaking me down and another shaking me down if the opportunity presents itself, which in all likelihood, it wouldn’t?

To quote from Syriana:

Maoman, the ‘criminal record check’ is just for Taiwan, yes? Or do you pay to get something more comprehensive? How do you go about doing that? (Nothing to do with me, I’m asking for someone that’s interested). GiT, the police thing starts with small buxiban owners ratting 'em out, then you get a tit-for-tat police raid war, with children in an environment where aggressive teams of police show up at their school, every few days. It’s not nice for kids to deal with that. I saw it going on at a place my friends had on MinSheng East Rd.

GiT, when did you get so misanthropic? I hate Taiwanese buxibans; not knowing any better is no excuse for anyone involved, but someone like you with actual education training and knowledge of language learning has a chance to change the world and move away from lining your own pockets by exploiting children through their parents’ fear of the state schooling system. Really, would you like your kids to grow up in a language buxiban with students teaching them, with no insurance or first aid or fire systems?

You decry the western nanny state, but you constantly rubbish the kind of second world Taiwanese education system that you will have a hand in because you think you are too smart and important to teach in, and presumably won’t educate your kids in. Do you think ‘western’ kindergartens are safe and desirable places to leave young children (for the most part) because of market forces? That’s ridiculous. It’s because rules are strictly enforced. Non-English speaking, unqualified in childcare/education, un-police-checked foreigners on tourist visas who don’t even know CPR are not allowed to work with children, not because we assume they are bad, just because it would be unthinkable to allow such a situation to take place.

i don’t like to get personal, but I know you’ll argue that no, your kids will be better and somehow more important because they are yours. They won’t be left with a Russian guy who doesn’t speak your kid’s native language for extended periods of time. He won’t have a hugely inappropriate but OK for brown kids curriculum. He won’t have his emotional needs met by a university student who just needs the money. He’ll be taught languages effectively, at the right age, by schoolteachers, not someone who just did it so he could marry a local. He won’t be in a dangerous schoolbus or a school with no toilet paper because you will control his entire environment. Yes, it stinks, and by being unprincipled because your don’t the balls for anything more, you perpetuate it. You rightly hate buxibans yet want to open a sub-buxiban because you are too lazy and self-important to work within the system. However stupid and nasty it is, it’s better to have some regulation, surely?

The Darwinism thing gets a bit old sometimes. It’s funny sometimes, but you know you come across as a bit of a crank, especially when your completely illogically, over-emotional rants hardly mark you out as someone who is likely to profit from the whole thing. Your plot seems to be; get married for safety then engage in a bunch of low-level nickel and diming, GET RICH!!!

I had the chance to open my own place a few years ago. I took the most soul-destroying teaching job in the world, instead. I sometimes wonder if it was the right decision. The school closed, after a couple of years and I don’t kid myself that my involvement wouldn’t have stopped that.

Buttercup: When did I get so misanthropic? When I encountered people. Simple, glib answer. That’s the world. It’s cut throat. I’m not going to change much in the world in the grand scheme of things, though that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t effect some small changes (perhaps). Despite millions of people having subscribed to the teachings of philosophers and prophets far greater than I could ever hope to be, they’re still going around ripping each other off, even if they’re not killing and raping as much. That’s the world, tit-for-tat responses inclusive.

That doesn’t mean I wouldn’t try to do as good a job as possible teaching. I actually think that when I’ve had privates, I’ve gone well above and beyond the call of normal duty, such as having to spend a lot of time visiting friends and recording my own dialogues with them, recording the students in class, and then e-mailing them copies of both recordings outside of class. I never just waltzed in and out, yet when I gave an inch, they tried to take a mile. If I’ve become a mercenary prick it’s because I realise that’s the only way to go in most cases, though it’s still in my best interests to try to give them the best I can.

Of course I wouldn’t send my kid to a dodgy place if I could avoid it. I’d pay more money, which would be my choice to spend it on that rather than something else. We don’t mandate that everyone eat at some super-expensive vegan restaurant. We let people eat at McDonald’s if they so choose. We don’t even mandate that they order the full works. If all they want is a cheeseburger, then that’s their choice. If adults are willing to accept something with fewer checks and balances at a cheaper price, then that is indeed their choice. In the majority of cases, we’re not talking about people who can’t afford anything better or who aren’t smart or educated. We’re talking about people with big careers and big incomes who make these decisions consciously. They’re aware that if they want all the frills, they have to pay more. Yet they consciously set up these fly-by-night schemes out of their own living rooms so they can pay 50-100NT/less per hour for their kids. We’re not talking about running some dodgy operation in Uganda where it really would be exploitation. If anyone is nickel and diming these kids its their own rich parents. The market allocates reward according to risk, largely, and the consumers should be given that choice. If they really all did want something super-duper, they’d all be lining up at such places and more places would be popping up to mop up the increased demand. Clearly, the opposite is happening though. That’s the market.

Ultimately, this has nothing to do with laziness. The easy option for me would be to get a normal job and coast along, as many people I know do, especially within the public system (I’m not saying that everyone in the public system coasts along, just that some can certainly get away with it). I’d actually be taking a big risk going out to freelance. For me, it’s about the money. I don’t define myself by my job. I don’t want a career. Jobs have always been things I’ve had to endure to pay the bills so I can live the rest of my life, largely because I’ve rarely been someone who could focus heavily on just one pursuit – it sometimes amazes me that I manage to spend eight hours a day doing roughly the same thing. Again, that doesn’t necessarily mean I don’t try to do a good job, but that I’ve been ground down by years of working within the public education systems in three countries and I’ve realised that when everyone else has been giving the kids busy work or not disciplining them because it’s too hard, I’ve been the guy out on the rock all by himself, but I feel I’m largely coming to the end of my tether. What it means is that I’ve realised that if it’s about the money for me so I can do other things, then I need to try to maximise the amount I can earn so I can either work less or retire/move onto other things sooner. Far from being some illogical or emotional, I think this is actually the most rational financial approach and it’s probably the best for my own emotional health in the long term, and probably also for the kids who pass through my life in the short term.

Finally, do you really think that I say all this to potential clients? I’d say I’m not the most charismatic person in the world, but I’m by no means the least. Here I’m presenting it without the sugar-coating, but I could easily twist it around and put some positive spin on it, which is what I do when I deal with people offline. That’s what marketing is. It’s largely spin.

It may strike you as incredibly ironic, but those with whom I have (had) dealings in these matters have commented that I’m sincere, earnest, quite dedicated and the rest of it. Just the other day, a friend told me that his boss wanted me to come in and be a judge in a speech contest that I did last year. This was something I’d largely forgotten about because I’m an outsider for their organisation (so I’m a little surprised they brought me in last year to begin with), and I was a little surprised that they would go to the trouble of specifically seeking me out again. When I declined because of another engagement, again through my friend, the boss asked if my friend could get me to get someone else.

My point is simply that I find it strange that a lot of people here, including you on rare occasions such as this, take anyone’s online persona so literally. I think you’ve probably been closer to the mark on those more frequent occasions when you’ve said I’m full of shit.

OK, fair enough. I wrote that pre-cup of tea, this morning.

I wish you well. I just wish all those English buxibans would close tomorrow and the money went into the school system. Imagine how great Taiwan could be without that money and time and entrepreneurial expertise being leached away from what the kids really need? They could be in amazing, effective, beautiful schools for the cash that simply lines people’s pockets, now. Will it ever happen? No, because human animals favour their own children over the greater good, even if the greater good benefits their old children more. No-one wants to be the first to say ‘Why not do it this way?’ and risk losing out on some imaginary pie. The weakness of ‘Darwinism’, as you understand it, IMO.

Buttercup: In some sick way, I actually enjoy it when you take me to task, even though I rarely agree with you.

In an ideal world, yes, you’re right about the allocation of resources. Darwinism is what it is because that’s the human, and indeed living, condition though. Why did the buxiban system arise? I’m not being glib here. I suspect that the public school system was so incredibly rigid and ineffective and corrupt that the buxiban system arose almost as a necessity. I don’t think it was a case of buxibans and then corruption, but the other way around. In an ideal world, everyone would be on board like in the Finnish system. It sounds absolutely fantastic, the system (or should we say systems, since power is quite bottom-up?) they have there. Here though, you’re getting into these really strange questions about culture and society and so on that you’d have more hope of solving if you consulted a tarot card reader. This is not to say it’s a Taiwanese problem. I scratch my head over why the rest of the world isn’t trying to copy Finland. I suspect that one day, the Taiwanese system will sort itself out or the country will fall in a heap. It kind of works that way, and the sorting out process is often one of great upheaval and stress.

We’ve had a team of professors sent by the government come to look at our school and our programme and interview us. Out of our eight teachers, six stood up and smiled and made everyone happy (well, one guy near the end got carried away with the laughfest and said he saw himself as an entertainer, a clown, and you could have cut the air with a knife and one of the professors later commented on how she’d been insulted by it :blush: ). In the middle, I got up and said that despite largely enjoying the job and obviously wanting the programme to continue because it paid my wages, we need to question whether it’s the best allocation of funds. Maybe we need to approach it as we would investing in anything else, even if that would mean I’d be out of a job. I think everyone thought I was crazy, though diplomatic. Then, my colleague (who had just quit at the time out of frustration) got up and took them to task, saying the whole thing was an exercise in face and that the government knew that our programme wasn’t the most effective allocation of resources and that he had been in other more effective programmes that the government had shut down and recently re-opened (where he’s going to work now) and that as part of his M.A., he was researching this very issue and could back up what he said with a ton of research. Everyone in the room was looking for the nearest rock to crawl under. I agreed with him and knew the rant was coming, so unlike everyone else in the room, I didn’t look like a bomb had just gone off. Finally, at the end, our principal said that he knew the programme could be improved if only the government threw more money at it, which is what you’d expect him to have said.

I could be a cynic and say that my colleague was 100% right that it was all for show and that the professors had been sent to “find” the right results, and I’d probably put money on that option if I really had to take a bet. I could go the other way and say that everything is just peachy, and everyone’s making a fantastic effort doing what they’re doing, including those people sent to investigate the system. The lady who complained about the clown comment seemed quite sincere, so I’m inclined to believe that there are more and more lone voices in the wilderness starting to form a chorus. In the meantime though, that doesn’t help me or anyone else very much, which is why I want to get out while the getting out is good. As cynical as I’ve come across in this thread, I actually do believe I’d be far better at effecting positive change if I got to run my own show teaching kids about geography instead of running through more of the mindless crap that goes on in a lot of other places, and of course, I’d quite possibly make more money too. Win-win.

[quote=“GuyInTaiwan”]Feiren: Really, how would I find out the hard way? I’ve clearly stated several times that I would not run anything out of my own place for the very reasons listed above. To a local observer, I’d hardly be a fish worth frying because I’d be doing a series of unconnected privates. They wouldn’t see the bigger picture. Or, I’d have some sort of agreement with a school. Likewise, if something happened to a kid, I’d be either in someone else’s apartment with at least one, if not several, Taiwanese parents or again, I’d be in a school, so they’d be liable.
[/quote]

You’d be surprised how much local observers observe. If something goes wrong, the police will interview everyone involved. If the trail of money points to you (or if people say it points to you), you could be at least partially liable. You as the foreigner are in fact the MOST likely to be assigned blame since you will be gone after the episode ends.

In any event, you clearly understand how the world and Taiwan work, so I will leave you to your own devices in your grey areas.

It looks like I started something here and hope I haven’t aggravated anyone personally. Listen, the whole Taiwan market is one big gray area as far as teaching is concerned and there’s a fine line that is often crossed between legality and illegality. Everyone who has been here for years has worked hard to get to where they are whether they have a school or not. So what, if I have taught out of my home. There are 25 million people here and I doubt it seriously if it has taken much business away from anyone. Besides it’s actually legal to teach privates at home, we aren’t talking about a friggen school. If neighbor kids wanna study, why not?

Personally, I have taught legally (because I’m married and have had a criminal record check :sunglasses: ) at over 80 companies and 20 schools over the last 13 years. In my home, mostly privates with some small groups of kids, bfd. I can go out and rent a cheap clean place, license it, and teach groups. Everyone works hard. But you don’t need to invest a lot to make money here. In fact private adults although unstable pay more than groups of crazy out of control kids anyway.

I don’t think anyone has to pay taxes on private students. If groups are under 4-5 students they don’t give a shit. As far as I’m concerned foreigners can teach who they want, where they want and when they want. It’s a free open market mate.

I’ve set up two legitimate schools that couldn’t compete because of the big chain schools nearby, so I teach sometimes from my home and if people want to set up private group lessons in their homes wherever it’s fine by me. But I plan to set up another legal school soon FYI to stay above board. :discodance:

What happens if the ceiling falls down on a kid and permanently disables it. Got insurance? Or is it simply a case of caveat emptor?

That’s completely silly, if you step back a little. Your legality is based on the fact that you signed a piece of paper (?) to state that you really like your spouse and you aren’t a convicted criminal, so you legally get access to children in a teaching capacity. How does that serve education at all? How is that not just third world ridiculousness? You can see why people scoff at the law because ‘legal’ means nothing, in real terms. Hoop-jumping.

People need to examine what they are doing in a wider context. What positive and negative effects does my work have on the wider world? Open the nasty buxiban. Pretend that if you are a nice person, you have no ill effect on children. Use the cash to avoid putting your kids in that system, even. Bitch about how ‘they’ have no ‘critical thinking skills’, etc. You’re in denial. ‘They’ are educated by ‘you’. That’s ‘their’ problem.

Mmm. Ms BC, that is a pertinet case that you make. Fact is, though, that unscrupulous buxibans are going to hire “teachers” to do that shite anyway. Why settle for a crappy salary when you can do the same from home with larger renumeration? We all know it’s bollocks, but where does morality start?

With ourselves.

Not moralising to anyone else; I did bad EFL for a fair chunk of my 11 year career. At some point you just have to say; no. This is wrong. ‘Everyone else is doing it so why can’t I cash in?’ is no way to live, either from a personal outlook, or a wider basis.

I just stopped respecting myself for taking money for stealing childrens’ play/education/rest time getting them to take classes with me. I’m a qualified adult teacher who has worked in the state system in my own country. In the UK, I’m allowed to teach 16-18 year old kids but no younger because I’m not qualified. My school exploited me, the kids and the kids’ parents by pretending more. That’s not right. No grey areas. That is no different whether you are the whore, the pimp or the john, however you carve it up.

I want to hear from the buxiban owners/teachers who put their own kids through an education with a comparable modus operandi. Not their own buxiban, under their supervision, a comparable one run under the same business model and with the same health and safety and staffing levels.

Anyway, these are just general thoughts. I worked sort of in that system for years and am not claiming moral superiority over any individuals or groups. Although I quit eventually, I did it for my own reasons for years. I have a slightly more judgemental perspective on my former life than I did when I was actually living it …

[quote=“Buttercup”]

With ourselves.

Not moralising to anyone else; I did bad EFL for a fair chunk of my 11 year career. At some point you just have to say; no. This is wrong.[/quote]
An honourable sentiment, my dear friend, but impractical. Such is the situation that moral objection is superceded by supply and demand. Surely it is more productive (in the context of your moral conundrum) to conduct classes outside of the rote establishment (and make some cash) than be co-opted?
MacEducation will persevere. It’s all about MacFutures and MacMoney, ultimately.
Starvation and disposession is all well and fine in the context of moral high ground, but the MacFuckers are going to make the money anyway. Why shouldn’t the MacFreelancers undercut and usurp the MacEducation MacFuckers and MacProsper?

[quote=“jimipresley”][quote=“Buttercup”]

With ourselves.

Not moralising to anyone else; I did bad EFL for a fair chunk of my 11 year career. At some point you just have to say; no. This is wrong.[/quote]
An honourable sentiment, my dear friend, but impractical. Such is the situation that moral objection is superceded by supply and demand. Surely it is more productive (in the context of your moral conundrum) to conduct classes outside of the rote establishment (and make some cash) than be co-opted?
MacEducation will persevere. It’s all about MacFutures and MacMoney, ultimately.
Starvation and disposession is all well and fine in the context of moral high ground, but the MacFuckers are going to make the money anyway. Why shouldn’t the MacFreelancers undercut and usurp the MacEducation MacFuckers and MacProsper?[/quote]

Because it’s crap and has shades of racism to it. I’m still sort of in the loop with it. One day I won’t be. I really think that people have the power to change things, if they want to. The MacFreelancers and MacFuckers are the same people. Intention is irrelevant; effect is all.

Buttercup: At least for me, it’s not shades of racism. I was like the last rat deserting the sinking ship that is education in the English speaking world. I couldn’t teach in those systems anymore, and I certainly wouldn’t send my kids through most of the schools I taught at in Australia or England.

I did try to fight the noble fight, but all it probably did was shave years off my life. I often criticise the Taiwanese system, but I’ve never had kids throw things at me here. I’ve never had kids right in my face swearing at me. I’ve never met an assistant principal or other teachers here who have been assaulted. Whilst sometimes we’re treated like clowns, I’ve never sat in a staff room here and listened to a teacher tell us nonchalantly (like it’s happened so many times before it’s not shocking to her anymore) that a kid threatened to get his father to come up to the school and rape her.

I criticise the kids here for often being unable to think critically, yet they’re generally fairly courteous. A lot of kids in the schools I previously taught at were all about their rights but either couldn’t think about the consequences of their actions on the rights of others (teachers, students or people in the broader community) or simply didn’t care.

Also, everyone in the West seems to have an opinion on everything, but doesn’t know anything to back it up. They all had a comment about the Iraq War, but couldn’t show you where Iraq was on a map, tell you anything about the history of Iraq or even tell you the meaning of democracy (yes, that happened in one class I had), let alone talk about the process of how countries consider going to war. They all have an opinion on Wall Street and the financial crisis, yet understand absolutely nothing about their own personal finances, let alone those of an entire country. Actually, they look at you like you’re able to channel supernatural powers just because you can do basic mental arithmetic.

So there’s a start of a list of why I think education in the West is fucked and why I think in some respects, Taiwanese education has it all over what I experienced elsewhere. Pity I can’t mix and match.

I fought things constantly. Parents always want standards, except when it’s their kid being called out for being a little prick. Many of the staff and management at these schools appeared like they’d just survived the Siege of Leningrad and would always tell me that I tried too hard and I was wasting my time. I’ve been actively undermined for this very reason – because I made them look like the jaded, burnt out shells they were. I’ve seen foreign teachers deliberately fed to the wolves, such as the case where a Mr Chou (presumably of Chinese extraction, and with fairly weak/timid English, so probably not long fresh off the boat) was given the worst group of fifteen year old boys in the school, perhaps as an act of sadism to see how long it would take to break him, and indeed, he lasted less than a year. I developed what, in any other circumstances would be considered paranoia, just as a self-defence mechanism. It’s bad enough that you have to think that anything you say or do can be twisted and manipulated by these borderline criminal students, and that the automatic response to that will invariably be to see you as guilty until proven innocent (by which time your whole life may have turned to shit). No, it’s the completely unfounded allegations by some manipulative little prick that you’re still semi hung out to dry for, even if you’re later proven completely innocent, that completely broadside you ad knock the stuffing right out of you. Fortunately, I managed to avoid all but the most minor of such incidents, but I saw them happen around me. I believe it would only have been a matter of time before my number was up.

So, you want to know why I’m not trying to make a difference in the world, well it’s because I’ve had the shit kicked out of me emotionally and professionally. Some have had the addition of the physical. You want to know why I’m so misanthropic? It’s because nothing will make one a misanthrope faster than the unbridled horror of a classroom, staff meeting or parent-teacher meeting. None of what I do fucking matters if the underlying culture or educational ethos is rotten to the core, as I really believe it is in the West. People wonder why I’m so right wing in many respects when I’m a teacher. It’s because I’m a teacher that I’m like this. I didn’t start out this way. I used to be heavily on the left on most of the usual grab bag of issues such as corporal and capital punishment, the right of free education for all, etc., yet I was driven to my position by encountering the dregs of humanity on a daily basis.

Jimipresley is right on the money when he says things will persist regardless in this country. That’s why I would probably want to homeschool my own children or perhaps send them to certain private schools if I could afford it. This isn’t about here, there, public schools, buxibans or anything else. It’s that the human situation is a bad situation because the human situation is all too human, or to use a more modern medium, it’s a big shit sandwich and we’re all gonna have to take a bite (and the more bread you have, the less you taste the shit, so eat or starve). I realise now that I have to make my money while I can, as fast as I can whilst suffering as little additional personal damage as possible. My ability to save the world from itself can no longer extend beyond my own epidermis, largely because the world not only doesn’t want to be saved from itself, but it actively wants to wallow in its own shit and drag in anyone else within reach.

When are you utopian educationalsts going to realise that it’s not about education?

I think I have, given the conclusion to my missive above (making my as much money as I can in the shortest period so I can get out), though I’m curious to know what you think it’s about.