- The Challenge of the Empty Interview
- Telling a Fib...
- Is Blackstone Legally Blackstone?
- Holy Toledo!
- Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are...
- Stop Them in Their Tracks
- Rock Dwellers
- Tuzuk - A Contract to Steal
- Tuzuk in Turkish (Original Version 2005)
- The Tax Man Cometh
- Hoosier Hooligans
- A Half a Billion Dollars!
- The Mountain is Moving
- Twirling and Whirling with American Tax Dollars
- Seeking Turkish Teachers...
- Dear Friends,
- This Disgusting Country
- Friends and Visas
- Welcome Back Mr. Sagnak
- Also Known As (AKA)
- See Sam Squirm
- Sam I Am
- AKA
- Identity Crisis -- Continued
- Identity Crises -- Part 2
- Lie, Apply, Deny, and Move
- Ahoy Mateys!
- The Pizza Guys
- Let's Just Change the Board Minutes
- Pie Charts Are Pretty Groovy
- When 839 = $3,038,019
- 67% and 100%
- 200 Million -- Oh! My!
- Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire
- Moving, Moving, Moving....
- How to Get a Turkish Teaching License
- Turkish Teachers --"Substituting" Qualifications
- Sign an Affidavit
- From the Land of Oz
- American Teachers
- Sequel to American Teachers
- Part 3 of the Trilogy
- A Solution or a Crime?
- That's Quite a Bonus
- Hush Money
- The Case of the Lopsided Turk
- 53,000 Bucks in Immigration Fees - Oh! My!
- Searching for an English Teacher...
- Perimeter Primate Proof Perfect
- Bad Girl
- Bad Girl 2 -- The Finale
- Palm-Greasing and Gold-Panning
- Rumor Has It
- Boo-Hoo Boys
- No, No, No
- How the Turks are Helping
- Power Point and Graphs -- Oh Boy!
- Now You're Okay Oklahoma!
- Crazy About Oklahoma
- Not Okay Oklahoma!
- Call to Action
- Dancing the Texas Two-Step
- The Texas Trade Mission
- Just Drink the Tea Ellison
- Political Pandering
- Before You Vote...
- Fantastic Diet Mr. Yildiz ...
- Pesky Teachers
- Who Are We?
- Chicago - Chicago...
- We Smell a Rat
- Trapping a Fleeing Rat
- $40,000 is Not Enough
- More News -- Same Story
- He's Crying the Blues -- Again
- Where O' Where Did the Teachers Go?
- Are the Conditions Ripe?
- News at 11
- Great Pick!
- Look What a Plate Will Buy
- When the EEOC Discriminates
- The King is Naked
- Where's Homeland Security?
- Let the Sunshine In
- Inquiring Minds Want to Know
- Wiki Leaks Gulen's Agenda
- No Free Speech in Turkey
- Fact Versus Fiction
- They Are Not as Smart
- Pass the Motion
- You are Cordially Invited to an Audit
- Beware of the Dragon
- Deny, Deny, Deny -- Quack, Quack, Quack!
- Shout and Roar!
- Teachers with Guns
- Even the Italians Know
- Stage Fright
- Something Else is Erupting in Hawaii
- Hide and Seek Turkish Style
- The Book is Out
- Adding Insult to Injury
- For the Record -- Again
- Scholarly Advice
- When to Draw the Line
- He Sure Sobs a Lot!
- Now What?
- And They Say It Isn't So
- Security or Lawyers?
- Buckeye Hunting...
- The Beauty of the 1st Amendment
- Boiling Frogs -- Again
- It's What They Do Best
- Pleading the Fifth, Sort of...
- Reproducing Faster than Rabbits
- The Affiliation Scam
- The Ticking Time Bomb
- Aloha! Gulen
- Turkish Fiction Writing 101
- Bravo!
- More Money, More Money...
- Tell Us Again
- Gulen's a Busy Guy
- What's Good for the Goose...
- Playing Favorites
- And the Plot Thickens...
- Another "Situation" in New Jersey
- V-Day
- What Would Sam Walton Say?
- Let's Change the Rules
- Rocky Mountain Low
- Who Are These Guys?
- The Teachers Are Catching On...
- He Doesn't Read the US News?
- It Must be Kismet -- Oops -- We Mean Hizmet
- "School of Choice?"
- "Are You Listening?"
- Budget Blues or Baloney?
- Bad Boys -- Again
- Compare and Contrast
- And Like a Phoenix -- They Rise
- Is Anyone Reading This Stuff?
- Taking on the Boys
- Lone Star Mystery
- Where Were the Turks?
- Turkish Camp
- And That's What We're Talking About!
- Bullies Beware
- As the Breeze Blows
- Hey, Can You Loan Us Some Money Too?
- The Case of the Missing Laptop
- The Turkish Bank of America
- Beehive Buzz
- Hip - Hopscotch...
- Higher Quality
- Only 119 Left to Go
- "Has Tir"
- And That's What Brothers Are For...
- Man, Hate It When This Happens...
- The Turkish Import System
- Get Your Head Out of the Baklava
- It Only Takes a Calculator and a Turkish Man
- Standing Tall (uzun boylu)
- The Map of Gulen
- And You Get to Work More Too!
- And They Finally Said, "No!"
- Just Answer the Question!
- Losing Blood?
- Bring It On Boys
- What Are Fethullahcis?
- What a Novel Thought!
- Pictures are Worth a Thousand Words...
- Parents and Teachers Speak Out
- Just a Poor Guy on a Mission
- Oh! Where or Where Did He Go?
- Bored with the Board
- Funny Thing About Evidence
- The Treasure Trove
- Let's Toss a Coin!
- Bonus Points -- And the Winner Is...
- Bingo!
- Something Smells Fishy (Balik)
- Gee, There They Go Again
- Tulips and Turks
- Tell Us How You Really Feel
- Our Turkish "Family"
- I Love it When I'm Right!
- If I Were a Gambler
- Gee Guys, Where's the Money Going?
- Now This School Had Issues...
- Chirp -- Chirp!
- Think This is Made Up Too?
- "Frogs in the Kettle, Waiting to be Boiled"
- A Rare Breed -- Indeed --The American on the Board
- As Long as They Wear Scarves
- Sauerkraut and Gulen...
- The Beauty of Brainwashing
- Another Viewpoint on Gulen's Motives
- Still Want to Deny the Gulen Connection?
- Just in Case You Missed it
- And More School Stories...
- And They Come Bearing Gifts
- Fetullah's Grand Ambition
- Knock-Knock, Who's There?
- Gulen's Puppets
- Gulen's Egg Theory
- Follow Us On Twitter
- Contact Us
And so the story goes...
On, and on, and on.
Here's another first hand account from an American teacher that worked at one of the boys' schools.
We will not use his/her name because the teacher fears retalitory action (boy does that sound familar). If we only had a dollar for every time someone told us that. Or better yet, if we only had a dollar of our tax payer money that is going into Gulen's pockets....
Of course the boys will come back with their standard response -- "a disgruntled employee" -- which is most likely -- considering that this employee had every reason to be disgruntled.
This email was sent to us on September 21, 2010, and is unedited. It speaks for itself.
Date: Tuesday, September 21, 2010, 6:40 PM
"I was a teacher at PCSST a few years back. From the first days of my hire as a "replacement" Spanish teacher, I noticed quite a bit of things going on that seemed kind of "fishy".
1. The school had my credentials and previous salaries, promised the same, and then undercut the salaries of anyone who was not Turkish. In fact, teachers were invited to participate in a school reform initiative, whose proposals were categorically rejected by the "lead person" Emrah Ayhan; and his then "advisor", Merachnik.
2. Extreme violations of education rules were rampant, especially as to teachers' responsibilities and working hours. It seems ludicrous that, although charter schools receive public funding and get children "allegedly" from the school district they serve, that teachers are intimidated when they question the reasons for such flagrant actions of the administration.
3. In my own personal experience, the administration took a child's words and lies as the "Gospel" in a disciplinary action, and denied me of all "due process". Such an action would never have occurred in a public school with any teacher, be it tenured or untenured.
4. Teachers without credentials were teaching and earning higher salaries than fully certified teachers. Friends of the "Gulen Movement" just happened to "pop" in off the plane and given teaching jobs--some who couldn't even explain correctly in English a concise sentence.
5. Other teachers were from the local area, but definitely without credentials. I es- pecially remember an English teacher who was using such poor English, as "He ain't gonna do dat because I's be learning him good!" And--that is the way she spoke!
6. All preferential treatment went to the Turkish friends of the administration. An administrator's wife became a guidance counselor without any experience either in education or in guidance. One math teacher came over midyear from Turkey- limited English skills, no certifications, and was given an "under the table" salary of $75,000 (while on the books it stated only $40,000). There was also talk that Mr. Ayhan had also a "sweetheart deal" earning over $120,000 .
7. I witnessed a strange conference among the Trustees and a State Examiner, whereby all left for a luncheon afterwards. Shortly afterwards, the charter was re- newed for 5 years, and all "deficiencies" mysteriously disappeared!.
Here's another first hand account from an American teacher that worked at one of the boys' schools.
We will not use his/her name because the teacher fears retalitory action (boy does that sound familar). If we only had a dollar for every time someone told us that. Or better yet, if we only had a dollar of our tax payer money that is going into Gulen's pockets....
Of course the boys will come back with their standard response -- "a disgruntled employee" -- which is most likely -- considering that this employee had every reason to be disgruntled.
This email was sent to us on September 21, 2010, and is unedited. It speaks for itself.
Date: Tuesday, September 21, 2010, 6:40 PM
"I was a teacher at PCSST a few years back. From the first days of my hire as a "replacement" Spanish teacher, I noticed quite a bit of things going on that seemed kind of "fishy".
1. The school had my credentials and previous salaries, promised the same, and then undercut the salaries of anyone who was not Turkish. In fact, teachers were invited to participate in a school reform initiative, whose proposals were categorically rejected by the "lead person" Emrah Ayhan; and his then "advisor", Merachnik.
2. Extreme violations of education rules were rampant, especially as to teachers' responsibilities and working hours. It seems ludicrous that, although charter schools receive public funding and get children "allegedly" from the school district they serve, that teachers are intimidated when they question the reasons for such flagrant actions of the administration.
3. In my own personal experience, the administration took a child's words and lies as the "Gospel" in a disciplinary action, and denied me of all "due process". Such an action would never have occurred in a public school with any teacher, be it tenured or untenured.
4. Teachers without credentials were teaching and earning higher salaries than fully certified teachers. Friends of the "Gulen Movement" just happened to "pop" in off the plane and given teaching jobs--some who couldn't even explain correctly in English a concise sentence.
5. Other teachers were from the local area, but definitely without credentials. I es- pecially remember an English teacher who was using such poor English, as "He ain't gonna do dat because I's be learning him good!" And--that is the way she spoke!
6. All preferential treatment went to the Turkish friends of the administration. An administrator's wife became a guidance counselor without any experience either in education or in guidance. One math teacher came over midyear from Turkey- limited English skills, no certifications, and was given an "under the table" salary of $75,000 (while on the books it stated only $40,000). There was also talk that Mr. Ayhan had also a "sweetheart deal" earning over $120,000 .
7. I witnessed a strange conference among the Trustees and a State Examiner, whereby all left for a luncheon afterwards. Shortly afterwards, the charter was re- newed for 5 years, and all "deficiencies" mysteriously disappeared!.