Paul Lowe of Windsor Schools

Paul Lowe Links From Around the Web

tefltefl — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 16:19:57 +0000

The TEFL Blacklist

ELT World

Ripoff Report

Using English

Hypersonic Beams

What Happened?

tefltefl — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 17:09:46 +0000

A while ago, Paul Lowe of Windsor Schools in the UK started harassing Alex Case by leaving comments on his blog to the effect of “stop saying bad things about me or I’ll sue you.” Alex had not said anything bad about Paul Lowe though. From what I can gather, he may have made a joke about a hypothetical villain character that Lowe didn’t like.

Why Does This Matter?

tefltefl — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 17:09:37 +0000

This matters on a direct level because Paul Lowe has had other blogs taken down with his threats. Alex Case and Tefl.net provide good resources for EFL teachers, and I would not want to see them forced to take the blog down because of threats from this guy, especially when they have no basis.

More generally, blogs are one way which individual teachers can have their say. People can read them and see that they are blogs and keep that in mind when they decide how seriously to take the content.

I have had relatively positive experiences in EFL, but I firmly believe that there are schools which not only deceive teachers about conditions and so on, but count on that deception – and the inability of teachers to seriously counter what they say online – in order to continue profiting. If a large school can simply complain and get a blog shut down, dishonest schools face even less of a barrier to being dishonest.

My Verdict

tefltefl — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 17:09:16 +0000

I don’t know Alex Case personally, but I have had email contact with him regarding our respective EFL blogs. I am confident that he is a good guy and that he is being truthful about this (not doing it to get traffic or attention).

He asked readers to publicize this however they can. Read Alex’s post on Paul Lowe of Windsor Schools here.