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Meggiebea
Joined: 20 Oct 2006
Location: Uijeongbu, South Korea
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 Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2009 10:15 am Post subject: Canada International School - WARNING!! |
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Do not work for CIS, Canada International School
Mr. Kim, the owner, doesn�t return tax refunds, underpays severance pay, refuses to write letters of recommendations if he doesn�t like you but employs alcoholics because they don�t complain as much, fires people without warning or pay, will throw you out of your apartment, will cancel your work visa. Mr. Kim lies more then he breathes. He has threatened me on countless occasions and uses intimidation and lying to get his way. There is nothing honorable about this man so if you work with him be warned that he WILL screw you over.
I am a certified teacher, experienced, hard working and loved by students and parents. I was employed at Canada International School (CIS) in Uijongbu, South Korea, for over 2 years. It was a fantastic experience and I loved the students, staff, administration and curriculum. In April of 2009 our principal was fired and the owner of the company, Kim Hyung-Man or Mr. Kim, stepped in to act as principal. CIS has three schools in Korea and at least one school in China.
Within a period of 3 months 10 teachers had quit or were fired directly because of Mr. Kim. (Liz, Linda, Jennifer, Nolan, Amy, Stacy, Hee, Hyung Mi, Lisa and myself) It was obvious that Mr. Kim was a businessman and not an educator. He had no concern for the well being of the staff or students. He extended our teaching hours without pay, he demanded more testing and it was our duty to create these extra evaluation tools. He routinely would give us assignments that were due by the end of the day such as outline everything you have taught in the last 3 months including page numbers and describe what you will be teaching in the next 3 months, due at 6pm.
Shortly after Mr. Kim came to the Uijongbu campus of CIS we had problems with one of our teachers. This teacher left the school during class hours, swore at fellow staff members in the hallways, did not complete his lessons plans on time etc. The situation got so bad that we asked Mr. Kim for help, asked him to talk to him. Mr. Kim told us a story about his other school in Seoul. In Seoul he had a teacher who drank alcohol on the job. BUT the other teacher�s made him feel so uncomfortable that he quit and Mr. Kim did not need to give him warning letters or fire him. So his suggestion was to take the matter into our own hands. Mr. Kim didn�t care that he had just admitted that he allowed a drunk teacher to teach at his school.
Anyway after about a month with Mr. Kim I quit. The school was falling apart, teacher�s were quitting or being unjustly fired, parents were complaining and students were pulling out because of Mr. Kim. I gave my 60 days notice, according to my contract. Two weeks later was payday. Instead of paying us at lunchtime as we always had, he paid us at the end of the school day. It was on this day that I was informed that I was fired, not getting paid and needed to vacate my apartment. Mr. Kim also said he was calling immigration to cancel my visa.
I got an emergency visa and took the matter to court. My lawyer told me that I was owed 10,000,000 won in unpaid salary, tax refund, and severance pay. The severance pay was underpaid for my first two years at CIS. I didn�t know it at the time but CIS was paying my severance based on a 2,000,000 won �base salary� however it is illegal to do this, severance is based on an average of three months wages, including overtime. By LAW, I was also still owed my tax refund, some teacher�s have received their refunds, other�s haven�t. I had found out that there were schools in Seoul where Mr. Kim had NEVER paid tax refunds. At an average of 1,000,000 a year for tax refunds and 30 teachers who did not receive tax refunds for at least 7 years, that�s 210,000,000 won that Mr. Kim STOLE from his teachers, tax fraud.
After spending two months in Korea waiting to receive my wages, tax refund, underpaid severance etc, I was threatened several times by Mr. Kim. He said he was reporting me as illegal to immigration, I was not. He said he would call the Canadian Curriculum board and I�d never work again in Canada. He said he�d sue me for making trouble for him if I pursued my case. He said he�d pay me if I left the country but he told other teachers that if I left without pay he would never have to pay me. I thought that the threat of contacting the Canadian Curriculum board was particularly pathetic since there is no curriculum board, CIS is NOT an international school, and CIS teaches American text books.
Please be warned that Mr. Kim is a pathetic excuse for a human being, CIS is falling apart, people are quitting, parents are pulling their kids out but most of all no one who knows Mr. Kim has any respect for him, including staff, parents and children who call him Stinky Mr. Kimchi. Be warned. Don�t deal with the devil. |
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AgentM
Joined: 07 Jun 2009
Location: British Columbia, Canada
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| Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2009 10:19 am Post subject: |
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| Duly noted, sorry to hear about your problems. Thanks for the warning! |
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Bucky
Joined: 19 Jul 2009
Location: Vancouver (formerly Yongsan-gu, Seoul)
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| Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2009 10:38 am Post subject: |
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Geez, that sounds absolutely horrid. Thanks for sharing the warning.
"Canadian Curriculum board" is indeed pathetic. If he had even an inkling of understanding about the education system here, he'd quickly realize that such a thing doesn't exist (and probably can't exist, since the education system here is organized separately by province). |
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Corbin
Joined: 11 Jun 2009
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| Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2009 11:44 am Post subject: |
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Thank you!
I just applied there last week so this is good info to have... |
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nfld_chingu
Joined: 29 Jun 2009
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| Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2009 2:04 pm Post subject: |
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| Good to know, I turned down a contract from them a couple of weeks ago. Guess I dodged a bullet there. |
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xingyiman
Joined: 12 Jan 2006
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| Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2009 4:59 pm Post subject: Re: Canada International School - WARNING!! |
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| Meggiebea wrote: |
Do not work for CIS, Canada International School
Mr. Kim, the owner, doesn�t return tax refunds, underpays severance pay, refuses to write letters of recommendations if he doesn�t like you but employs alcoholics because they don�t complain as much, fires people without warning or pay, will throw you out of your apartment, will cancel your work visa. Mr. Kim lies more then he breathes. He has threatened me on countless occasions and uses intimidation and lying to get his way. There is nothing honorable about this man so if you work with him be warned that he WILL screw you over.
I am a certified teacher, experienced, hard working and loved by students and parents. I was employed at Canada International School (CIS) in Uijongbu, South Korea, for over 2 years. It was a fantastic experience and I loved the students, staff, administration and curriculum. In April of 2009 our principal was fired and the owner of the company, Kim Hyung-Man or Mr. Kim, stepped in to act as principal. CIS has three schools in Korea and at least one school in China.
Within a period of 3 months 10 teachers had quit or were fired directly because of Mr. Kim. (Liz, Linda, Jennifer, Nolan, Amy, Stacy, Hee, Hyung Mi, Lisa and myself) It was obvious that Mr. Kim was a businessman and not an educator. He had no concern for the well being of the staff or students. He extended our teaching hours without pay, he demanded more testing and it was our duty to create these extra evaluation tools. He routinely would give us assignments that were due by the end of the day such as outline everything you have taught in the last 3 months including page numbers and describe what you will be teaching in the next 3 months, due at 6pm.
Shortly after Mr. Kim came to the Uijongbu campus of CIS we had problems with one of our teachers. This teacher left the school during class hours, swore at fellow staff members in the hallways, did not complete his lessons plans on time etc. The situation got so bad that we asked Mr. Kim for help, asked him to talk to him. Mr. Kim told us a story about his other school in Seoul. In Seoul he had a teacher who drank alcohol on the job. BUT the other teacher�s made him feel so uncomfortable that he quit and Mr. Kim did not need to give him warning letters or fire him. So his suggestion was to take the matter into our own hands. Mr. Kim didn�t care that he had just admitted that he allowed a drunk teacher to teach at his school.
Anyway after about a month with Mr. Kim I quit. The school was falling apart, teacher�s were quitting or being unjustly fired, parents were complaining and students were pulling out because of Mr. Kim. I gave my 60 days notice, according to my contract. Two weeks later was payday. Instead of paying us at lunchtime as we always had, he paid us at the end of the school day. It was on this day that I was informed that I was fired, not getting paid and needed to vacate my apartment. Mr. Kim also said he was calling immigration to cancel my visa.
I got an emergency visa and took the matter to court. My lawyer told me that I was owed 10,000,000 won in unpaid salary, tax refund, and severance pay. The severance pay was underpaid for my first two years at CIS. I didn�t know it at the time but CIS was paying my severance based on a 2,000,000 won �base salary� however it is illegal to do this, severance is based on an average of three months wages, including overtime. By LAW, I was also still owed my tax refund, some teacher�s have received their refunds, other�s haven�t. I had found out that there were schools in Seoul where Mr. Kim had NEVER paid tax refunds. At an average of 1,000,000 a year for tax refunds and 30 teachers who did not receive tax refunds for at least 7 years, that�s 210,000,000 won that Mr. Kim STOLE from his teachers, tax fraud.
After spending two months in Korea waiting to receive my wages, tax refund, underpaid severance etc, I was threatened several times by Mr. Kim. He said he was reporting me as illegal to immigration, I was not. He said he would call the Canadian Curriculum board and I�d never work again in Canada. He said he�d sue me for making trouble for him if I pursued my case. He said he�d pay me if I left the country but he told other teachers that if I left without pay he would never have to pay me. I thought that the threat of contacting the Canadian Curriculum board was particularly pathetic since there is no curriculum board, CIS is NOT an international school, and CIS teaches American text books.
Please be warned that Mr. Kim is a pathetic excuse for a human being, CIS is falling apart, people are quitting, parents are pulling their kids out but most of all no one who knows Mr. Kim has any respect for him, including staff, parents and children who call him Stinky Mr. Kimchi. Be warned. Don�t deal with the devil. |
Correct me if I am wrong but I think I saw this rant posted on a website somewhere and there was a reply from a current teacher working at the school stating that this was only part of the story and embellished at that. In my experience ESL teachers are like prison inmates. They are never being punished for something they did wrong. |
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Elvis Gratton
Joined: 12 Jul 2009
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| Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2009 5:59 pm Post subject: Re: Canada International School - WARNING!! |
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| xingyiman wrote: |
| Meggiebea wrote: |
Do not work for CIS, Canada International School
Mr. Kim, the owner, doesn�t return tax refunds, underpays severance pay, refuses to write letters of recommendations if he doesn�t like you but employs alcoholics because they don�t complain as much, fires people without warning or pay, will throw you out of your apartment, will cancel your work visa. Mr. Kim lies more then he breathes. He has threatened me on countless occasions and uses intimidation and lying to get his way. There is nothing honorable about this man so if you work with him be warned that he WILL screw you over.
I am a certified teacher, experienced, hard working and loved by students and parents. I was employed at Canada International School (CIS) in Uijongbu, South Korea, for over 2 years. It was a fantastic experience and I loved the students, staff, administration and curriculum. In April of 2009 our principal was fired and the owner of the company, Kim Hyung-Man or Mr. Kim, stepped in to act as principal. CIS has three schools in Korea and at least one school in China.
Within a period of 3 months 10 teachers had quit or were fired directly because of Mr. Kim. (Liz, Linda, Jennifer, Nolan, Amy, Stacy, Hee, Hyung Mi, Lisa and myself) It was obvious that Mr. Kim was a businessman and not an educator. He had no concern for the well being of the staff or students. He extended our teaching hours without pay, he demanded more testing and it was our duty to create these extra evaluation tools. He routinely would give us assignments that were due by the end of the day such as outline everything you have taught in the last 3 months including page numbers and describe what you will be teaching in the next 3 months, due at 6pm.
Shortly after Mr. Kim came to the Uijongbu campus of CIS we had problems with one of our teachers. This teacher left the school during class hours, swore at fellow staff members in the hallways, did not complete his lessons plans on time etc. The situation got so bad that we asked Mr. Kim for help, asked him to talk to him. Mr. Kim told us a story about his other school in Seoul. In Seoul he had a teacher who drank alcohol on the job. BUT the other teacher�s made him feel so uncomfortable that he quit and Mr. Kim did not need to give him warning letters or fire him. So his suggestion was to take the matter into our own hands. Mr. Kim didn�t care that he had just admitted that he allowed a drunk teacher to teach at his school.
Anyway after about a month with Mr. Kim I quit. The school was falling apart, teacher�s were quitting or being unjustly fired, parents were complaining and students were pulling out because of Mr. Kim. I gave my 60 days notice, according to my contract. Two weeks later was payday. Instead of paying us at lunchtime as we always had, he paid us at the end of the school day. It was on this day that I was informed that I was fired, not getting paid and needed to vacate my apartment. Mr. Kim also said he was calling immigration to cancel my visa.
I got an emergency visa and took the matter to court. My lawyer told me that I was owed 10,000,000 won in unpaid salary, tax refund, and severance pay. The severance pay was underpaid for my first two years at CIS. I didn�t know it at the time but CIS was paying my severance based on a 2,000,000 won �base salary� however it is illegal to do this, severance is based on an average of three months wages, including overtime. By LAW, I was also still owed my tax refund, some teacher�s have received their refunds, other�s haven�t. I had found out that there were schools in Seoul where Mr. Kim had NEVER paid tax refunds. At an average of 1,000,000 a year for tax refunds and 30 teachers who did not receive tax refunds for at least 7 years, that�s 210,000,000 won that Mr. Kim STOLE from his teachers, tax fraud.
After spending two months in Korea waiting to receive my wages, tax refund, underpaid severance etc, I was threatened several times by Mr. Kim. He said he was reporting me as illegal to immigration, I was not. He said he would call the Canadian Curriculum board and I�d never work again in Canada. He said he�d sue me for making trouble for him if I pursued my case. He said he�d pay me if I left the country but he told other teachers that if I left without pay he would never have to pay me. I thought that the threat of contacting the Canadian Curriculum board was particularly pathetic since there is no curriculum board, CIS is NOT an international school, and CIS teaches American text books.
Please be warned that Mr. Kim is a pathetic excuse for a human being, CIS is falling apart, people are quitting, parents are pulling their kids out but most of all no one who knows Mr. Kim has any respect for him, including staff, parents and children who call him Stinky Mr. Kimchi. Be warned. Don�t deal with the devil. |
Correct me if I am wrong but I think I saw this rant posted on a website somewhere and there was a reply from a current teacher working at the school stating that this was only part of the story and embellished at that. In my experience ESL teachers are like prison inmates. They are never being punished for something they did wrong. |
http://www.eslteachersboard.com/cgi-bin/forum/index.pl?read=55762 ? |
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xingyiman
Joined: 12 Jan 2006
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| Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2009 11:29 pm Post subject: Re: Canada International School - WARNING!! |
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| Elvis Gratton wrote: |
| xingyiman wrote: |
| Meggiebea wrote: |
Do not work for CIS, Canada International School
Mr. Kim, the owner, doesn�t return tax refunds, underpays severance pay, refuses to write letters of recommendations if he doesn�t like you but employs alcoholics because they don�t complain as much, fires people without warning or pay, will throw you out of your apartment, will cancel your work visa. Mr. Kim lies more then he breathes. He has threatened me on countless occasions and uses intimidation and lying to get his way. There is nothing honorable about this man so if you work with him be warned that he WILL screw you over.
I am a certified teacher, experienced, hard working and loved by students and parents. I was employed at Canada International School (CIS) in Uijongbu, South Korea, for over 2 years. It was a fantastic experience and I loved the students, staff, administration and curriculum. In April of 2009 our principal was fired and the owner of the company, Kim Hyung-Man or Mr. Kim, stepped in to act as principal. CIS has three schools in Korea and at least one school in China.
Within a period of 3 months 10 teachers had quit or were fired directly because of Mr. Kim. (Liz, Linda, Jennifer, Nolan, Amy, Stacy, Hee, Hyung Mi, Lisa and myself) It was obvious that Mr. Kim was a businessman and not an educator. He had no concern for the well being of the staff or students. He extended our teaching hours without pay, he demanded more testing and it was our duty to create these extra evaluation tools. He routinely would give us assignments that were due by the end of the day such as outline everything you have taught in the last 3 months including page numbers and describe what you will be teaching in the next 3 months, due at 6pm.
Shortly after Mr. Kim came to the Uijongbu campus of CIS we had problems with one of our teachers. This teacher left the school during class hours, swore at fellow staff members in the hallways, did not complete his lessons plans on time etc. The situation got so bad that we asked Mr. Kim for help, asked him to talk to him. Mr. Kim told us a story about his other school in Seoul. In Seoul he had a teacher who drank alcohol on the job. BUT the other teacher�s made him feel so uncomfortable that he quit and Mr. Kim did not need to give him warning letters or fire him. So his suggestion was to take the matter into our own hands. Mr. Kim didn�t care that he had just admitted that he allowed a drunk teacher to teach at his school.
Anyway after about a month with Mr. Kim I quit. The school was falling apart, teacher�s were quitting or being unjustly fired, parents were complaining and students were pulling out because of Mr. Kim. I gave my 60 days notice, according to my contract. Two weeks later was payday. Instead of paying us at lunchtime as we always had, he paid us at the end of the school day. It was on this day that I was informed that I was fired, not getting paid and needed to vacate my apartment. Mr. Kim also said he was calling immigration to cancel my visa.
I got an emergency visa and took the matter to court. My lawyer told me that I was owed 10,000,000 won in unpaid salary, tax refund, and severance pay. The severance pay was underpaid for my first two years at CIS. I didn�t know it at the time but CIS was paying my severance based on a 2,000,000 won �base salary� however it is illegal to do this, severance is based on an average of three months wages, including overtime. By LAW, I was also still owed my tax refund, some teacher�s have received their refunds, other�s haven�t. I had found out that there were schools in Seoul where Mr. Kim had NEVER paid tax refunds. At an average of 1,000,000 a year for tax refunds and 30 teachers who did not receive tax refunds for at least 7 years, that�s 210,000,000 won that Mr. Kim STOLE from his teachers, tax fraud.
After spending two months in Korea waiting to receive my wages, tax refund, underpaid severance etc, I was threatened several times by Mr. Kim. He said he was reporting me as illegal to immigration, I was not. He said he would call the Canadian Curriculum board and I�d never work again in Canada. He said he�d sue me for making trouble for him if I pursued my case. He said he�d pay me if I left the country but he told other teachers that if I left without pay he would never have to pay me. I thought that the threat of contacting the Canadian Curriculum board was particularly pathetic since there is no curriculum board, CIS is NOT an international school, and CIS teaches American text books.
Please be warned that Mr. Kim is a pathetic excuse for a human being, CIS is falling apart, people are quitting, parents are pulling their kids out but most of all no one who knows Mr. Kim has any respect for him, including staff, parents and children who call him Stinky Mr. Kimchi. Be warned. Don�t deal with the devil. |
Correct me if I am wrong but I think I saw this rant posted on a website somewhere and there was a reply from a current teacher working at the school stating that this was only part of the story and embellished at that. In my experience ESL teachers are like prison inmates. They are never being punished for something they did wrong. |
http://www.eslteachersboard.com/cgi-bin/forum/index.pl?read=55762 ? |
I actually saw this rant on a different blacklist site. A person who claimed to be working at the school at the same time of this incident alluded to the OP having "other issues" and said that much of what was claimed was not accurate but presenting a one sided view of a disgruntled teacher. |
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E_athlete
Joined: 09 Jun 2009
Location: Korea sparkling
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| Posted: Wed Jul 22, 2009 11:59 pm Post subject: |
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| OP had me at "Canada" |
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Meggiebea
Joined: 20 Oct 2006
Location: Uijeongbu, South Korea
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| Posted: Thu Oct 08, 2009 11:49 am Post subject: |
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I can't find the reply on the other website, just a wishing well that everything turned out ok.
It did, and it didn't. I'm working at a great international school in another country so that's great, but CIS is still withholding tax refunds to ALL current teachers. But what can they do? If you stand up for yourself you get trapped in 3 months of paperwork in a system that is corrupt.
I actually contacted the member of the British Columbia teaching staff that endorsed the school and they said they removed their endorsement because of all the complaints. Whether or not CIS took this endorsement off their website...I doubt it and I don't really care to check.
Decide for yourselves if it is worth the risk. This is just my story and I thought I had an obligation to other teachers out there looking for jobs. I wish I had been warned. |
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SW
Joined: 08 Sep 2009
Location: Korea
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| Posted: Thu Oct 08, 2009 8:13 pm Post subject: |
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I am personally familiar with the OP and the situation she posted about. I am seconding her.
| Quote: |
| In my experience ESL teachers are like prison inmates. They are never being punished for something they did wrong. |
This is an apt comparison, but perhaps not for the reasons you intended, since there are in fact many prison inmates - in America especially - who didn't do anything wrong, but are being punished anyway.
| Quote: |
| A person who claimed to be working at the school at the same time of this incident alluded to the OP having "other issues" and said that much of what was claimed was not accurate but presenting a one sided view of a disgruntled teacher. |
Other teachers were not privy to most of the proceedings between the OP and the hagwon owner, so they really cannot say to what extend the story here is accurate. Many understandably (and, I think, appropriately) distanced themselves from the matter. From what I personally witnessed, however, the hagwon owner drew first blood when he refused to allow the OP to resign according to the terms of her contract. As for her having "other issues": her "issues" were nothing more than one would expect of an expatriate away from home for over two years, and of an experienced and very professional teacher dealing with a drastic change in school administration. The owner knew about them after having several meetings with her, so he shouldn't have acted so surprised when she turned in her resignation. The part about him failing to return taxes is also true: I haven't received mine back yet.
All in all, if you take nothing else away from this thread, I'd say the bottom line is this: If you are a certified teacher, you can do much better than CIS, even if you have no experience. True, you might sign there and be able to do a year or two with few problems - I came out unscathed, except for the tax issue, and the months before the principal change were the happiest I've ever been at a job (though it must be said I was coming off a REALLY crappy situation in the States). But that doesn't change the facts that you will not be paid what you are worth, the curriculum is absurd, and the vacation time is bare bones. Resources and prep time (for very long teaching hours) are also minimal. I know there are plenty of other schools with problems, but finding one with less problems than CIS shouldn't be a tall feat at this point. |
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