There is a response on the bottom of this article.  Debate is always encouraged.




Jon

I've been following the on-going netter debate on teacher attrition et al with interest......and a lot of head-shaking. While all the comments made so far are of some value, they all seem - at least to me - to miss the central issue...and a lot of other issues too. The facts are:

1. Teaching in general, and ESL in particular, is simply not a profession in the sense that the law and medicine and engineering are. Call it a skill, a calling, a craft, and avocation...whatever.....a profession it is not. . And employers are the first to recognize this....that's why so many job ads say "....or a closely related field."....meaning "if you got a BA (in anything), we'll take you. Can you imgaine an ad for a heart surgeon saying something like "MD preferred, but a closely related field will do"?
Absurd.

2. If you want to teach ESL in the US, you better have a spouse that's got a good income, or you're going to go hungry. Permanent, full-time jobs are extremely rare.....and most are reserved for "friends" of the hiring committees, despite advertising to the contrary. (Since most of these jobs are government funded in one way or the other, institutions are required by law to advertize these jobs.....but they already know who they're going to hire.....you don't stand a chance. This is not something new.....this has been true for at least 20 years). The bottom line on all this is that if one thinks one is entering a legitimate profession by studying in order to teach ESL, well, one is daydreaming. Most people I know in the US teaching ESL are running around teaching part-time at 3 or 4 community colleges or the like barely making ends meet by the time wear and tear on their cars and gas expenses are accounted for. Eventually, they give up and leave the "profession" and go into something else.

3. Many - not all, but many - of the best ESl teachers I have known, have had little, if any, formal background in ESL methodology or training. They learned their skills on the job....and I mean like in about 2 weeks of in-class teaching. ESL teaching, at bottom, is a question of personality...you either were born with it or you weren't. No degree or advanced training or intensive course study is going to change that. Some of the worst excuses for teachers I've come across are precisely those who have tons and mounds of training and experience...on paper they look great...but put them in the classroom and it becomes a mess, especially with student complaints. In 2 instances in my career, I was at the hiring end of the pole.....and I made it a point to hire people with little or no training and experience. In nearly every instance, it worked great for a variety of reasons.

4. Teaching ESL overaseas is another can of worms, so to speak. The fact is, most Americans are ill-prepared to go overseas on a job (the Brits are better at this than we are). They simply don't know what they're getting into. Something as simple (in the US) as paying your utility bill, can be a horrific experience in a country such as, say, Peru. It requires standing in line for hours and even days (paying by mail is unheard of there). Strikes are so common.....and I mean post office strikes, bank strikes....that one wonders how any business is ever done. While this sort of thing may be quaint and interesting for a while, it soon loses it's glamor and the teacher finally gives up and finds himself back at Miami International dazed and in shock. I've seen this a hundred times.

Going overseas to "learn the culture" is a sure path to disaster. The fact is, most foreigners, be they Latin, Slav, or Arab or Oriental, cannot fathom why an American would want to pursue a career in their country when almost every one of them would give anything to live in the US. Suspicions are aroused and responses to personal contacts range from derision to outright hostility. I mean if you're 20 and are going to teach in Lausanne for a while, that's one thing..perfectly acceptable, kind of like a nice finishing school. But if you're nearing 40 and want to teach in Tunis, well, that's something else again........and if you stay in the "profession" especially teaching overseas, that's exactly the spot you will find yourself in.... eventually.

5. In my humble opinion, there are very few legitimate reasons for an American to live and work overseas...teaching ESL on a long-term basis is not one of them. Now if you're working for IBM or Exxon or the like......or if you are a US government employee assigned overseas, that's fine. All your benefits are taken care of...like Social Security (the stories I could tell of overseas 64 year-olds without a credit to their names)....like pension and retirement benefits, schooling for your children, housing, superb health insurance (I mean if you get really sick, back to the US you go at their expense.....you'll never find a IBM executive or a US vice-Consul getting a blood-transfusion at New Delhi General).

One legitimate reason for an American to live and work overseas is to make money fast. Given the tax benefits available to US residents working overseas, this is a real possibility...and a plus. But even here, the choices are limited. You'll have to scratch out all of Latin American for example, where salaries are pathetic....you may as well stay home and work at K-Mart for all the money you'll be able to save in that region.

In Latin America, you're either very rich or very poor...if you're an IBM executive, you'll live in splendor...if you're an ESL teacher, well, bring the flea powder. The Far East, I'm not too familiar with...but many of my collegues who have worked there say salaries can be high but expenses are too, so that one ends up not really saving anything. And there are local taxes to worry about.

In my experience, the only place anymore where one can legitimately make it worth one's while financially to work overseas as an ESL teacher is in the Middle East and in particular the Gulf region (The Emirates, Oman, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and a couple of other places). But one should be aware of the spectacular personal adjustments one has to undergo in order to live in this part of the world. Most job applications, for example, require you to state your religion (this is not an optional question)....and your answer better be Christian. Not that it matters....whatever you're religion (other than Muslim) , you will be forbidden to practice it under penalty of deportation, and they ain't kidding.

To end, teaching ESL overseas is fine as an entry-type job.....to get some experience and to do a little travelling while you're young. But to look at ESL whether overseas or in the US as a career is, in my opinion, a tragic mistake...you're simply wasting your time. Eventually, it'll catch up with you at about age 35 and then you'll scramble to get into something else.....often by then, it's too late....and there you are stuck, embittered and a misfit in your own country.........Not a pretty picture,to be sure, but reading the TESL e-mail msgs that come across my screen on a daily basis, I felt I had to say something to the many obviously inexperienced teachers-to-be and what they should expect.

BEST OF LUCK............TIM PERIOR............UPSILON@JUNO.COM

Due to the large number of responses and questions (and misunderstandings) my recent postings have engendered, I am adding the following additional comments as a supplement. They deal exclusively with ESL teaching overseas (well, almost exclusively).

1. One seldom mentioned but important side to overseas teaching has to do with US overseas workers and their relationship to their official representatives in their particular locales....i.e. US Embassies and Consulates.

With some exceptions, the bottom line on this is: don't expect miracles or even civility from your well-paid and enormously benifitted and perked reps. Although officially their main task is to watch out for the interests of Americans overseas, this has long since become a standing joke among our diplomats. In fact, their main concern has become how to avoid, at all costs, any direct contact with their fellow Americans. Again, if you are the IBM or Morgan, Stanley representative in that country, they will lavishly and slavishly be at your beck and call and you will be invited to all functions, both official and unofficial. But an ESL teacher?.....well, you may as well have leprosy.

The fact is that our consulates have become (in a serious way since 1975) veritable fortresses impenetrable to all, ostensibly to ward off "terrorist attacks". But the big secret about all this is that this has happened not for protection from local insurgency but for protection from the swarms of locust-like "taxpayers" demanding the most ludicrous of "services". "Where can I buy DOVE soap?" "My Lederhosen doesn't fit right and the shopkeeper won't give me a refund.....what are you going to do about it?" "My employer isn't following the terms and conditions of my contract....what rights do I have?" And the worst of all: "I'm outta money....send me home."

The worst nightmare of a consular official is not a terrorist showing up at the portals with an Uzi, but an ESL teacher showing up with a list of demands. There are always two sides to a situation, of course. But as a "Foreign Service Brat", I tend to sympathize with our consular officials. It used to be...till about 1965....that foreign travel, foreign assignments etc. was exclusively the domain of our upper classes, our aristocracy (Oh? You don't think these institutions exist in America? Don't get me going on this. But I assure you, the class structure in America, hidden tho it may be, is as strong, alive and influential as is it's counterpart in Britain....or India. I don't mean money...I mean class, breeding, blood ). But since the mid-60's with the "democratization" (a nice word for Dumbing-Down...and classing-down) of our educational, professional etc. institutions, the word has gone out...............avoid all contact at all costs.............give'em a Do's and Don'ts piece of paper (with the proper disclaimers in mini-print) and send them on their way.

Parenthetically, if I may, I refer you to pg 23 of TESOL Matters April/May 1997 where an article appears extolling....and I mean with vigor, enthusiasm, with almost euphoria....the virtues of the so-called LGBT people.....lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered. The article calls for "openness" on the part of ESL teachers to discuss these issues in their ESL classes.

Have we all gone mad?? What issues? The issue that there have always been and there always will be freaks among our population? Why is this an issue? It isn't an issue. It's another non-issue that's been packaged up to resemble an issue that incompetents can hide behind. "Oh, I'm only a so/so teacher because I was raped when I was 2 months old" etc. Topics such as these are prime examples of the disgusting, blasphemous, and castrating approach to "education" that has been perpetuated by the misfits, malcontents and resenters that have infected and gotton control of our educational institutions -among others- in the last 25 years. And these are the very people that go overseas to teach and do other mischief.......barricade the doors!!!....the freaks are on the march!!!! Bring out the flamethrowers, the innoculations!!!!

2. Now that I've caught my breath, let me continue. ESL teaching in the U.S. and ESL teaching overseas are 2 very different things with the same name. In the US, ESL teaching is basically another job...there's really not much to it....as I've mentioned elsewhere, it's a non-profession that has been perpetuated as a profession with devastating results for the innocent. But this is another issue.

ESL teaching overseas requires a very special person. Very few can be successful at it. Two, 3 or 4 years of overseas teaching is no problem, especially if you're young and adventursome etc. But anything beyond that is a different kettle of fish. Note the recent horror story posting of ELIs experiences in Korea....and that's just one country. In fact, teaching ESL overseas is similar in many ways to entering the priesthood (and to mollify the lesser sex, the sisterhood). Ultimately, it requires one to put aside everything one has been brought up with and taught as an American. How many of our illustrious collegues can really do that? Very few. That's why one sees these pathetic "ex-pats" voraciously reading TIME and THE INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE in their desperate need to have some contact with their true base....the USA (whether they like it or not). Does a Paki, a Saudi, a Nipponese ever read these? Of course not....they're not in the least bit interested. And it's those who proclaim the loudest about their "adjustment" that are the most suspicious.

(I remember once in SFO airport. There was this utter flake leading a group of Japanese businessmen around, getting their tickets, etc. Obviously he was their guide. This pitiful excuse of a Caucasian was wearing a regular western suit and tie. But the imbecile was walking around like a Geisha with hands sort of folded over his chest and shuffling his feet as he walked and bowing to the poor businessmen when he addressed them. He was even able, somehow, to contort his face (it must have taken years of practice...or else he had had a face lift) so that he looked like Madame Butterfly with a sardonic expression. The businessmen were obviously aghast....some were infuriated and showed it in thier faces....and I know that for a Japanese to show this kind of emotion, especially in the face, and especially in public, and especially overseas, is extraordinarily rare. They, and I, wanted to tear him apart. He was an ESL teacher I had known years ago elsewhere. It was an utterly repulsive scene. "This is the kind of freak we send overseas" I remember saying to myself.))

As I've said, a few years of overseas teaching is fine..but beyond that, what you get is over 40's who despise themselves, their host country and everything around them...I've seen legions of them...everywhere. They have forced themselves to remain in a field where they had no business being in the first place and have soured on everything. (It's interesting to note that the priesthood is itself notorious for the huge number of dropouts....after finding out that their "calling" was a total fraud and they had been fooling themselves for a couple of decades..........OH, I BELIEVE IN GOD...I'VE HAD A CALLING......yeah, right.....Ditto ESL teachers.)

BEST OF LUCK (anyway).............TIM PERIOR UPSILON@JUNO.COM

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And the response:

Hi Jon, Yes, you may put my Perior response article on your web page. You 
may include my email but please include both pruetlst@luther.edu AND 
pruettt@nicc.cc.ia.us so both institutions will be happy. Thanks. 

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As I have a couple of friends thinking about changing fields I read with
interest this post. However, as someone who has been in ESL for some time I
would like to comment on the thoughts in Perior's article. First of all, I
do hope that Perior has been able to change fields because it is pretty
obvious he's really unhappy with this one. First of all, I think this
discussion about profession or not a profession is just superfluous. I mean
we talk about professional athletes or actresses and they may have little
if any training and still get paid a lot of money. Exactly what kind of
training did Bill Gates or Donald trump have? But the other points that
Perior brought up do need to be discussed. I think it is safe to say that
ESL jobs, as well as many other teaching jobs, are not well-paid in the US.
And yes many such jobs are part-time. In fact, at the community college
level in the US 60-70% of all jobs are part-time. Other institutions in the
US are heading in the same direction of hiring part-time, temporary people
to fill job positions. Welcome to the so-called global economy. Why do you
think people were demonstrating at the WTO in Seattle? Does this mean there
are no full-time well-paid ESL jobs? No, but you better be well-prepared
and competitive and willing to go where the jobs are. If you think you will
ever make a lot of money in ESL or in any teaching position, you'd better
rethink your career plans.

As for going into public school teaching-- First, you have to have a K-12
teaching license which is given out by each state. If you haven't already
had a lot of education classes you will have to return to school to get an
education degree or take a lot of education classes. Even if you have an
education degree/teaching license in one state, you may have to take more
classes, etc. to be certified in another state. I have education degrees
from both Illinois and Kansas but after teaching for four years in Iowa I'm
still considered a provisional teacher even though I was told by the
certifying board that they couldn't think of any more classes for me to
take. Sometimes I believe this is my own personal persecution except that I
have friends and colleagues throughout the US who have similar stories.
Also way too many school districts hire ESL associates/aides in place of
ESL teachers. Why? Because immigrant parents don't vote and they don't
force the issue. where they do, you'll see good ESL/bilingual programs.
Again this isn't just my personal experience but seems to happen a lot of
places in the US.

Hiring committees-- We all like to blame the hiring committee when we don't
get hired. But each hiring committee is different and so I think it is
impossible to make a blanket statement like all hiring committees hire
their friends. I've been on hiring committees and each case I didn't know
the person we decided to hire. But if you work someplace where there are a
lot of part-time people who do a good job and a full-time position comes
open it seems reasonable to me to hire one of those part-time people.  But
in many cases that doesn't happen and then part-time people are really
angry and demoralized. Again I think it is impossible to make such blanket
statements.

So what about changing fields. A lot of people do it and probably more
would do it if they could figure out how. Here are a few examples I know
of-- One friend got a law degree and is now a law clerk for a judge.
Another friend is applying for an editing job. And another friend got an
MBA and is applying for a job as a marketing analyst. In my own case I got
my latest job by applying for a part-time composition teacher at a
community college. But they now have me teaching ESL and art classes. I
also have an art degree. BTW, if you think ESL jobs are hard to find and
pay low, I can assure you art jobs fall in the same category. If you want
to get paid well in the US, go into science and math, engineering, etc.,
not the humanities and social sciences.

I've definitely thought about changing fields too but I love teaching and
I'm glad I haven't had to change fields yet.

Terry Pruett-Said
pruetlst@luther.edu or pruettt@nicc.cc.ia.us