Dear ISR Readers,

Thank you for your patience in awaiting my next column. Currently I’m dealing with several serious situations– 2 in Africa, 1 in Germany and 1 in Kuwait. Each teacher has required continuous assistance for an extended period, two for as long as four months. As soon as the teachers and administrators in these situations are safely relocated, I’ll bring you a synopsis of what has occurred with school warnings regarding employment at each of the four schools involved.

The World Wide Web has truely made the world a small place. Interestingly, the teacher in a difficult situation in Kuwait was well aware of the situation at the school in Germany and, in fact, during our correspondences highlighted the German school as one to be avoided in the future. It is important to note that serious situations are kept in confidence until teachers are out of them. As such, I shared no information with the teacher in Kuwait about the situation of the teacher in Germany.

My best advice to all of you is:

· Use your intelligence network, teacher to teacher, to search out the ethical schools. Forums can be very helpful.

· Read the reviews about schools and director being written by your colleagues on ISR

In closing, please do not become the next casualty in International Teaching. It’s not that I don’t want to hear from you; it just that the stories I hear are so very painful and difficult to negotiate.

Feel the love
Dr. Barbara Spilchuk