ELT World Discussion

[alexcase]

I would be grateful if you could help me and TEFLers everywhere by sparing ten minutes to read this and do one of the actions suggested below

Some background: 2 weeks ago a certain Paul Lowe of Windsor Schools/Windsor TEFL came out of nowhere and into my life by threatening to sue me and the owner of the site my blog,TEFLtastic, is on. Obviously boosted by the success this effortless method had in shutting down Sandy McManus's TEFLtrade blog and Wally Windsor's site, he didn't even think it was worth spending a few minutes checking what TEFLtastic had to say about him before firing off a threatening email. I can say that with full confidence because before I reprinted his email mentioning legal action there was not one reference to Paul Lowe or Windsor Schools on my blog.

So, why should you care? Apart from the specific loss of a couple of blogs, I would argue that there is a major principle at stake here, one that could affect all of us and one that we are approaching a critical period with.

The TEFL world on the internet is rapidly changing from one where a quick Google search can bring up a full and colourful range of views from teachers, students, trainees and the occasional crank, to one where any TEFL related searches will find you yet again on Cactus TEFL or i-to-i TEFL. My accidental brush with Mr Lowe has helped me come up with a plan to tackle that loss of our influence. Whether it will be a successful last stand or not I can't say, but here's how to go out with our guns blazing:

My proposal is to make a lesson of Mr Paul Lowe of Windsor Schools/Windsor TEFL that other school owners and TEFL training organisations can learn from by making sure that everyone who searches for him on the internet hears what we have to say, and making sure there are enough of us saying it that he has to give up the use of unjustified threatening emails to silence us. As diversity of voices is the whole point, I won't even suggest what you could say about him, but here are some simple and time efficient ways of using this opportunity to show the TEFL big boys we won't be gagged:
- Paste this and/or your own comments into an email and send it to everyone you know, especially people in TEFL
- Leave a brief message of support here or anywhere else he or his school get a mention
- Google him or his school and only click on the pages that give an independant viewpoint
- Give links to such pages in your blog, MSN page, Facebook page, email signature etc.
- Paste this post and/or make a comment in your blog with suitable tags, or in any of those other places mentioned above
- Start a new thread on this topic in TEFL and other forums
- Start a suitably titled new blog with info and links on Paul Lowe and Windsor TEFL-it takes literally 5 minutes to set up a free blog on Blogger or Wordpress,and if I can anyone can!
- Write to Paul himself at paul@windsorschools.eclipse.co.uk and let him know what you think



I hope I have convinced you that by making our voices heard in this way we can all benefit in the longer term, or at least that I am genuine in my attempts and worth 5 minutes of your time to help.Any help at all would be much appreciated

Thanks

Alex Case, TEFL teacher and blogger.
TEFLtastic blog- 'All the truth that's fit to teach'- www.tefl.net/alexcase

[golightly]

let him take you to court, if he dares: If it is shown that he is threatening people with legal action on little or no basis, and those actions come to court, and if he is found to have no justification for his allegations, he will eventually be deemed a 'vexatious litigant', effectively barring him from seeking legal action against anyone about anything, or face legal restraints himself.

I daresay he's trying to bring a suit for libel or loss of trade: well, he'd need some extraordinarily good evidence to prove himself.
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[golightly]

Crikey - I've just read the thread on TEFLtastic - it's a bit on the mad side.
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lak witch mak televizyon

[Topper]

I read it as well. I wonder if the guy posting as PL is even working for the company that he says he represents. Seems like more of a troll to me. An reputable organization would let the lawyers do the talking, not having a representative posting in such a juvenile manner.


But thats just my opinion. Personally, I'd just ignore the guy if I was alexcase.

[Glenski]

Feeling some heat, Alex?

There are those among us who are not going to lift one finger to help you, mostly because you don't even allow people with differing opinions or with more accurate information post on your blog.

As you wrote...why should they care?

[alexcase]

Glenski.

Along with Paul Lowe, you remain one of only two people blocked on TEFLtastic. I think your message makes it clear why.

[Glenski]

Sorry, Alex. You tout the beauty of different blogs as if it's lovely to have different opinions, yet you restrict people from saying what they want, even if it's a harmless opinion.

What is worse is the out and out blocking of people who can actually correct the misinformation you dish out.

[alexcase]

The offer of a free TEFL.net blog of your own and a link to any comments you make remains open.

[Guy Courchesne]

Alex, you have a highly-regarded blog out there, and your name is well known. How about some more information on this particular Case? I'm willing to get involved but I don't know you that well at all, and I find the details of this particular instance lacking between your post and your blog.
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Life is a verb, not a noun - Now Bloggin' and Working Hard

[Glenski]

[Henry_Cowell]

[furiousmilksheikali]

It's bizarre how many feuds can start up in the high-powered world of TEFLing.

This one contains both Paul Lowe and Dave Sperling as well as some racial slurs:

http://tefltrade.blog-city.com/dave_sperling_is_a_wnker.htm#comment