Job Discussion Forums

[maryfrances]

[007]

[007]

[007]

[maryfrances]

This all true. Anyone who thinks this is unimportant disrespects TESOL teachers and the profession. The teachers at PSU were some of the best professionals I ever knew. But the nuttiness, the nastiness, the vicious, really, mismanagement makes the place toxic. Poisonous atmosphere. The cuckoo who runs the �ladies� program has non-native speakers running things, insults everything American (as if there were better), insults some fine teachers and okays quizzes and exams that are plain wrong. There is considerable wind about �linguistics� but a deadening setup for the investigative and expressive skills he kids need.

The hemorrhaging of women teachers is another sickening scandal.

To pretend that PSU students, who can�t spell CAT, can handle real university work is to discredit TESOL. Shame on PSU and Oxford, shame on anyone who accepts this as a cultural aberration. Please value our work.

[007]

[Cleopatra]

Globalnomad,

I don't think anyone here is denying that the elite US universities are among the best in the world, or that the US is still at the forefront of many scientific fields (though many claim it is losing ground fast). My point - which I still stand by - is that the general world knowledge of the 'average', non-university educated American, is very poor. It is poor not only in contrast with that of non-uni educated people in other first world regions like Europe, but also in contrast with developing regions like the Gulf.