We all know of the practice of teachers warning others about dodgy schools, don’t we? Quite rightly, there is an ever increasing network of sources on the net warning teachers about the places not to go, the TEFL Blacklist being one of the best known, the schools mentioned often making their way onto the ELT World forums. Did you know that in some parts of the world, this practice is reciprocal? That’s right folks, there are teacher blacklists out there, As might Guy Courchesne highlights in a new thread on the forum:
‘Here in Mexico City, school owners share info with each other on select nutjobs that breeze through town. However, there’s one school in Tepic, Mexico (aka Shitsplat, Nowhere) that has gone so far as to post on their webpage the names of said teachers along with their ‘offenses’. This is laughable to say the least.’
You can visit the offending webpage here.
Now, when you’ve been in this profession a while, you stop wanting to give people second chances, especially when you have to work and maybe even live with those who need serious help in managing their lives. Being able to warn a school not to hire a nutjob may indeed be a good thing. the problem of course arises when controlling such blacklists. What I enjoy about the TEFL Blacklist blog is that there is a reasonable degree of balance; schools who have been blacklisted genuinely get the chance to argue their case and are able to respond directly on the blog. Can the same be said of these schools in Mexico? Regardles of the fact that I think it’s funny that Dave’s ESL Cafe members have been banned (how they decide you’re a ‘member’ is beyond me), I still worry about the level of accountability. Who makes it to the list? Can you ever get off such a list?
Things like this ruin people’s careers and we need to be aware that such lists exist. Schools will make use of them despite how accurately they reflect the individual inquestion.
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This sounds like a dangerous precedent to me. Where wil it end?
It is a spoof isn’t it? Anybody told Dave Sperling, yet?
Sounds like a job for Mr. Kalgukshi.
This blacklisting goes on in the US as well though it is more covered up. Every public and private school district has their own secret list of people not to hire.If you ticked off a school district or sued them for back pay you can be sure you will never be hired again due to blacklisting. I am an excellent teacher who has been out of work for close to 4 years because I hired a lawyer for back pay.
How would I know if I have been blacklisted? I just started my teaching career in Jan 09 and worked 2 half semesters and one full semester. I was not asked back and was offered the chance to resign. I have been on 5 interviews that seemed great, but no one has hired me. I don’t know what I have done. I was told my classroom management isn’t where it needs to be, but I’m a new teacher. It doesn’t make sense. I want to know what the real issue is so I don’t waste my time looking for teaching positions.
blacklisting is alive and well in Wyoming. They
think that they are above the law out there. Big piney wyoming has a superintendent that thinks he can choose your religion, what you teach, where you teach, the most insane person. He pretty much thinks he is god.
I clicked on the link and found nothing but list after list of ads.