Sample Family Reference Letter For Private School: Fill & Download for Free

This is one of the most personal questions I’ve answered on Quora, even more than the one about my cancer treatment.Tl:dr version: Do NOT assume that a private school is better than public. Just as there are excellent and awful public schools, there are excellent and awful private schools. And not only are the awful ones awful, but they are not accountable to anyone, so you don’t even have a schoolbord or local elected officials you can complain to about the awful experience you had with the awful private school. And on top of that, you paid through the nose to have that awful experience!I went to both public and private schools, and so did my daughter. Our experiences were many ways mirror opposites.I went to public schools through the 9th grade. Very average school system for 1st grade, then to a small town for 2nd grade through most of 4th. In that town (Clarion PA) there was a state teachers college, so the first school I went to, for 2nd grade, had a big advantage because it was next to the college and we had tons of student teachers and their professors practicing on us, giving us lots of attention and all the latest educational methods. Then that school closed and merged into the main elementary school, which was not so leading-edge (that’s the school I wrote about in another answer, about their policy of paddling children), but I still had a good experience there because of being labeled gifted, so my teachers would give me lots of fun special projects to keep me from getting bored. Then near the end of 4th grade we moved out of state, and ended up in a really excellent public school system, where I stayed through 9th grade.I had positive experiences at all the public schools I attended, even the ones which on paper might not be considered top schools. Again, this was mostly because I was a gifted student who loved school, and teachers got very excited to encounter a student eager to suck up as much learning as they could send my way.I am emphasizing that point because there is a certain type of parent — a stereotype, but one that often holds true — parents whose children are performing poorly in school, even disruptive, and the parents claim the problem is the child is actually TOO bright and is acting out because he/she is bored — i.e., the parents claim it is the school’s fault for not engaging the child. I have a LOT of friends in the teaching profession, and they overwhelmingly assert that it is almost never the case that the child is actually too bright and acting out due to boredom — what IS the case is that the parents are in denial that any of the problem could be the child’s fault or the parents’ fault.Before a lot of people pipe up that it really did happen to them just that way, please note that I said it was “almost never” the case, so I am willing to grant you may be one of the few exceptions. I simply ask that you also grant that my own experience was valid: that in various grades, with various teachers in multiple school districts, no teacher I encountered neglected my gifts or allowed me to be bored, but was always excited to have met a gifted pupil and give me extra projects, even though this meant extra work for the teacher. And all this was in public schools.I applied for a scholarship program which led to me going to a top boarding school for 10th through 12th grade (Phillips Exeter Academy). One thing I found in my very first semester there was that, even though I’d come from a public school background, I was as well prepared for my new, more challenging school as the kids who’d gone to expensive private schools their whole lives. However, I must concede that I did witness some classmates who had a harder time hitting the ground running, and though I did not do any scientific sampling, I admit it’s probable that the kids who struggled when they first got there were more likely to have come out of public schools. But eventually they caught up.As much as I liked all the public schools I had attended, my experience at Exeter blew them all away. I constantly shake my head at the way movies & tv depict all boarding schools as horrid places that mean parents send their kids as punishment, because my experience was closer to the way Harry Potter felt: how lucky he felt to find himself at Hogwarts, and how he couldn’t wait to get back to Hogwarts at the end of each summer. My family hadn’t mistreated me or made me sleep in a cupboard, but I couldn’t wait to go to my boarding school after every break.Yes, a big part of it was that the academics were outstanding. They dumped so much homework on us, but it made us feel so grown up, to be learning things at a college level, etc.But the best part was the other students at my boarding school. They were all so smart and interesting, and still are. I still love talking to them on facebook every day. I can’t find the link, but a few years ago read a very comprehensive study that concluded the single most significant advantage of private school is not the academics or facilities, but social networking — i.e., private school grads tend to be more successful in life because private school sets you up with a network of contacts, who tend to come from more influential circles. LOL, I am actually one of the least ambitious/successful of my schoolmates, but they are nice enough to keep talking to me.Now, back to my daughter. My husband & I both had full-time corporate jobs when she was little, so we had to arrange for her to be somewhere during the workday. She was in an excellent in-home daycare situation for her first 3 years, but the lady there noted that she really seemed ready for a more school-like setting, so we had to find her a pre-school. There were no public school options at that age, so pre-school would have to be private.Well, almost right behind our house was a Montessori school with a lovely campus, so we enrolled her there. Her first couple years there were so good, we didn’t even switch her to public school when she was old enough for kindergarten.The school actually goes all the way through high school, so we started to assume she would be a “lifer”. Between what a good experience she was having those first few years, and the fact that we were spending so much time with the other families in that school, and going longer and longer without having any dealings with the public schools, the idea of the ‘big bad scary public school system’ came to loom in my imagination, so it became increasingly daunting to consider switching her.Instead, I increased my commitment to her little private school. And that was my “mistake”, because when I got more involved in helping the school, I learned more about the workings of its administration, and what I learned caused some concern. (Kind of like the saying about seeing the sausage being made.)This process was strikingly similar to stories you read on Quora about people becoming disillusioned with their church, or people gradually facing the fact that their spouses are cheating/abusive.At first, when I would learn of a problem or bad management decision by the school’s administration, I would just think, well we just need to fix that. But then it would not get fixed, and often the administration would just go on to make yet another stupid decision.Enrollment was declining, in a school that was already starting to feel claustrophobic. Each grade in the high school consisted of fewer than 25 students — that’s the entire grade. Imagine your high school graduating class being about 20 kids. Of course the school would spin that fact as being an advantage: that it showed how exclusive/selective the school was, and how much personal attention your child would have there, yadda yadda.But the truth is, they really were not very selective: they were dying for students.They were also dying for money. There was constant pressure on parents to volunteer time, donate more money, help raise donations, etc. And they kept cutting programs, or adding on fees to the parents to cover the costs of incidentals that had previously been included with tuition. Meanwhile, tuition kept climbing. It really was like being in an abusive relationship or a cult religion, where gradually they get you to where you are giving more and more to receive less and less, yet you stay, thinking it is so vital to make this thing work.One of my most disheartening realizations was how hard it would be to get the number of parents protesting the problems to reach a critical mass so that the administration and BoT would have to take notice and clean up their act — because parents were not all realizing the problems at the same time. Any one family would wake up and realize the place was messed up, and find a few others to commiserate with, but most of the parents were still drinking the Kool-Aid. So the newly awoken parents would figure why bother, and just switch their kid(s) to another school — this is the Washington DC suburbs, where there are tons of school options. So at any given time, nearly all the parents remaining were still under the spell, or maybe still in the process of waking up to the extent of the problems and still hoping they could be fixed. So, if you tried to bring a concern to the administration, their response was that pretty much all the other parents seemed happy with things, so the complaining parent must be the one with the problem.Then, at the end of my daughter’s 7th grade year, more than a THIRD of the faculty resigned, including both deans. Some of the resignations were normal turnover, but most were dissatisfied, to say the least, and in the case of the 2 deans and a few others, it was definitely a case of them banding together to resign in protest of management.I actually steered clear of that whole debacle, as I was already involved in a few other grievance issues and was trying not to be the kind of parent who gets involved in every single complaint.Still, I was starting to get on the principal’s sh!t-list for being a complainer. By this time, I’d been involved with the school several years longer than he had. I was in my 11th year as a parent, while he was in his 6th as principal. Even then, I was still trying to work with the administration and BoT to get him to clean up his act, rather than fire him. Apparently, though, some other parents were a little further along than I in the disillusionment process, and they pressured him to resign. I’d been just about to give up on the school, but hoped the fact that they had gone so far as to push him out meant they were coming around, so we decided to hang in a little longer. I even hoped that all those teachers resigning at once a few months prior had gotten their attention as I’d never been able to do, so maybe they were finally changing their approach.Our daughter had started 8th grade by this time, so if she were going to switch schools, we wanted her to be able to start at her new school right from the beginning of high school, i.e., 9th grade. So, we figured if things weren’t better by the end of 8th grade, we wouldn’t be back the next year.She didn’t even make it to the end of 8th grade!The principal was being allowed to stay to the end of the year himself, while they did a head hunt search for his repacement. But even though he was a lame duck, he managed to do more damage.It started with a stupid little screw-up on the part of a teacher. It was childish and irresponsible behavior, and so I can see why she might be embarrassed, but still: grow up and own your mistake, say your sorry, and move on. Simple, right? But not for this teacher. The term “Narcissist” gets thrown around a lot lately, especially on Quora; we’re very quick these days to label someone as NPD. But if I’m really scrupulous, I can only think of a couple people I’ve known in my life whom I’d unreservedly label NPD. This teacher was one of those (She was also the ONLY teacher I ever complained about in my 11 years at that school).Well, Ms. Narcissist couldn’t say she was sorry, so she went to great lengths to avoid it, including pressuring 2 teenage students to lie! Which snowballed into the matter coming to the attention of lame duck principal, who jacked it up further, including slandering me for being the one to raise concerns about the NPD teacher, because, as I said, I was already on the principal’s sh!t-list. The problem was, the way he chose to slander me was to portray me as a major b!tch. Fine, I don’t really care, but among their attempts to support this accusation, they also referred to my daughter as some sort of tantrum-throwing brat.NOT OKAY! This was my innocent 13-year-old daughter, who had aboslutely nothing to do with the matter. They had no right to drag her into their little hissy fit against me.Our family learned about this and other stuff that had been going on behind our backs, because another staff person was really bothered by how our family was being treated, so she broke ranks and told us, even though they’d told her not to speak to me.Their excuse for keeping us in the dark was that I was allegedly so volatile that I would probably do some sort of scary retaliation.Well, I did do something in a hurry: we pulled our daughter out of that school. She never set foot on its property again. Her friends cleaned out her locker and brought her stuff to us. We returned her team uniforms, books, anything that belonged to the school. We did not get any money back, even though the school year was not even half over. We had a helluva good grounds for a lawsuit, but that would have caused discomfort for my already-traumatized daughter, and for the many fine people on staff there who were not to blame for the actions of the principal and Ms. NPD. So I would say I went pretty easy on them, not anything like the psycho-b!tch they said I would be.By the way, if anyone in this story should be accused of being vindictive/retaliatory, I’m thinking it’s the parties who respond to a valid customer complaint by slandering the customer’s family, including the customer’s innocent 13-year-old daughter.Meanwhile, we continued to hear about more screw-ups and scandals. They can’t blame me, because I had left with no fuss, so ha. A few weeks later, Ms. NPD told a classroom full of students that my daughter had been expelled (um, no, I had notified them that we were withdrawing her and I have the letter we got back from their lawyer, saying they’d like a chance to discuss it with us first, to change our minds. Which we of course declined) and that the reason she was expelled was that she was a racist! Her BFF who came and told us this is black, btw, and joined us in shaking our heads trying to figure out how the hell this teacher thought this accusation would ever fly, because there has been literally nothing in my daughter’s conduct, EVER, that could by any stretch be construed as racist. Wow, yet more grounds for a lawsuit, but I did nothing — because my focus was on my daughter’s transition to her new school.Which, by the way, was great! Since we’d only had a couple days to switch her out of the abusive cult private school, we just put her in the public school. Not a single one of the scary things we’d heard or imagined about public schools held true. The middle school where she finished out 8th grade was great, and within the very first week, she was really happy she had switched.She’s now in 10th grade in public high school, and is thriving. The friends she has made are great kids, she has more course options and other opportunities than she would have back in the tiny abusive cult school. She is on honor roll, and her school’s daily schedule is more compatible with her job at the “barn” (the horse center where she’s been working since age 12). Between her having more time, and us having more money (since we were no longer paying private school tuition), she increased her involvement at the barn, earning more money, and improving so much as a rider that she has been winning a lot more horse shows and is captain of her team, even though she’s only a sophmore.I can only kick myself for having been so stupid as to have kept her in that stupid private school for so long. The lesson I learned is that private schools are not necessarily as good as the one I attended, not even necessarily as good as public schools. They can be horrible, as long as they can find enough sucker parents they can fool. And again, they are not accountable to anyone.I said at the beginning that this was the most personal post I’ve made on Quora, but reading back over this, it doesn’t sound very personal, because I did not go into the details. I don’t want to talk about those details here, but it really was personally traumatic. Yes, there are more traumatic experiences that people write about on Quora; heck, I myself have had some more traumatic experiences than this one, but I’ve never written about those; I can’t even write about this in full detail. I will just say it still bothers me; I have not getten any closure.So that’s the long term effect my own private school and my daughter’s private school have had on me.As for the effect on her, well I’m relieved it seems not to have scarred her much, and that she is doing so well, although of course I wonder if she might be doing even better if we’d switched her out sooner.Also, when I say it didn’t scar her much, the fact is that even now she has occasional nightmares of being back at that school. When she first mentioned it, I thought she meant the usual nightmares a lot of folks have where you’re back in school and it’s the end of term and you’ve missed almost all the lectures and are about to fail the final, etc., and then you realize hey, I haven’t attended this school in years; I must be dreaming. But my daughter said no, that her dreams that she is back at that school are not about schoolwork or grades, but rather about feeling trapped and suffocating.Although it’s been 2 years, the abusive cult private school is still right behind our house, and I still hear updates on the latest debacles and scandals. the lame duck principal is of course gone, but his protegee and right-hand woman is still there, carrying on his ill-judged policies. The NPD teacher was gone by the end of that year, but I never heard definitively whether she was forced out — because of course she would play it off as her having resigned on her own, whether or not that was the case.Some days I still toy with the idea of suing them, wondering if that would finally give me closure, because so far, I don’t feel like I have any closure.

[無調漢語拼音的缺憾 Toneless Hanyu Pinyin can cause serious problems]GR Tonal Spelling makes names maximally distinctive; Hanyu Pinyin leads to a confusing blend of totally unrelated names that sound quite different to Chinese ears, but look exactly the same to foreign eyes. TL;DR 性命攸關 Outside of China, not using GR Tonal Spelling can have serious, or even life-changing consequencesThree names that look totally different in GR Tonal Spelling: confusingly blended in Hanyu Pinyin:Imaginary, but plausible names: 陸六贏醫師, 魯劉穎大師 and 盧柳鶯大師1. 陸六贏醫師 Dr. Luh Liowyng (Lù Liùyíng Yīshī), the dentist, bears the auspicious name 六贏 “six successes”2. 魯劉穎大師 Master Luu Liouyiing (Lǔ Liúyǐng Dàshī), the photographer, bears the name 劉穎, which is a pun on the word 留影 “take a photo [as a souvenir]” (this phrase is often used for photo captions)3. 盧柳鶯大師 Master Lu Leouing (Lú Liǔyīng), the musician, bears the name 柳鶯 “[literally] willow warbler”, one of many species of songbirds, some of which can be found in Taiwan.In Hanyu Pinyin (promulgated in 1958), Lù Liùyíng ≈ Lǔ Liúyǐng ≈ Lú Liǔyīng are spelled with exactly the same letters. These names look almost identical to foreigners who don’t know Chinese (most of whom ignore the tiny, untypable tone marks) but they sound and look completely different to Chinese police and bureaucrats (Chinese adults only care about the characters; Hanyu Pinyin is a study aid for small children).In GR Tonal Spelling (promulgated in 1928, but ignored by the PRC government), these three names look completely different: Luh Liowyng ≠ Luu Liouyiing ≠ Lu Leouing. Foreign police and bureaucrats cannot and will not learn Chinese characters. They only care about the spelling. Different spelling → obviously different peopleAnswer: Yes, people in Taiwan still use GR Tonal Spelling (a.k.a. Gwoyeu Romatzyh), but it is hiding in plain sight where most foreigners don’t bother looking (not just tour buses ;-). GR Tonal Spelling is used for naming people, clothing, household goods (rubber bands, insecticide), Chinese medicine, noodles, beverages, snacks, doctors’ offices, beauty parlors, restaurants, companies, schools etc.I took all of the photos below within the last month. I live in Taipei, but I managed to locate several samples of GR Tonal Spelling even in Kaohsiung, a DPP stronghold where Southern Min is more popular than Mandarin][Jyma Liuhdow 芝麻綠豆, GR Tonal Spelling (Gwoyeu Romatzyh)—a children’s clothing brand I found in a traditional market] [zhīma lǜdòu][Song Jer CPA 松哲會計師事務所, GR Tonal Spelling (Gwoyeu Romatzyh)—an accounting firm on Nanjing West Road in Taipei. The sign is bigger than the side of a bus, but is only visible when people look up from their cell phones ;-)] [Sōng Zhé][Piin U Bakery 品屋麵包蛋糕, GR Tonal Spelling (Gwoyeu Romatzyh), a bakery/coffee shop in Kaohsiung] [Pǐn Wū][Shiow Chwan Hospital 秀傳醫院, GR Tonal Spelling (Gwoyeu), a private hospital with branches all over Taiwan; name is slightly misspelled (omitted -i-)] [Xiù Chuán][Yuh Tay Farm 裕泰農場, GR Tonal Spelling (Gwoyeu)][jingpiin pyishye 精品皮鞋, GR Tonal Spelling (Gwoyeu), shoe shop in Kaohsiung]GR Tonal Spelling still appears side by side with Bopomofo in many monolingual Chinese dictionaries (字典、詞典) published in Taiwan. Foreign students tend to only consult bilingual dictionaries published outside of Taiwan, so they mostly don’t notice GR’s continued existence.[In Taiwan, dictionaries for native speakers include Bopomofo only, or a mixture of Bopomofo and GR Tonal Spelling/Hanyu Pinyin. Unfortunately, Pinyin is gaining ground; I saw these books in the 國語日報社 Mandarin Daily News bookstore]When it comes to romanization, what most foreigners do notice is the major exception to the use of GR Tonal Spelling: place names, which are a chaotic battlefield for three competing systems: the decrepit 150-year-old Wade-Giles system (and its cousin: Postal Romanization), 1958 Hanyu Pinyin and a modified Pinyin system (slightly different spellings) used mostly in southern Taiwan.Edit: GR Tonal Spelling still survives in certain localities:[Shinnyih Street 信義街 GR Tonal Spelling, 29 June 2019 (Gwoyeu Romatzyh, street sign)] [Xìnyì Jiē, Hanyu Pinyin]Rarely Asked Questions (RAQs)Many people take it for granted that one single commonly-used romanization system is all we need: whatever is used by the majority of Chinese people. The Hanyu Pinyin for everybody approach neglects to consider two important facts:(1) For many western learners, the use of optional diacritics implies that tones are also optional (“Tones are too subtle. I don’t need to be a perfectionist: muddling through is good enough. If I can find the time, I’ll master tones later!”)(2) For Chinese people who spend time abroad, an ill-considered choice of spellings can facilitate identity theft or lead to confusion. The consequences can include canceled credit, job loss, mistaken arrests, medical errors and expensive lawyer’s fees.Rarely-Asked Questions:RAQ 1: Who needs to use romanization?RAQ 2: What is the purpose of romanization?RAQ 3: Why should everyone use the same romanization?RAQ 4: Which problems does Pinyin (un)intentionally ignore?RAQ 5: How is 1928 GR Tonal Spelling better than 1958 Hanyu Pinyin?RAQ 1: Who Needs To Use Romanization?A: Children learning to read and write their native language for the first timeB: Chinese adults who want to# look up the correct pronunciation of less common or problematic words or characters# produce or consult lists or indexes# input characters on a computer or smartphoneC: Foreign students of Chinese, who need a tool for learning and annotating characters, and inputting them on a computer or smartphoneD: Foreign visitors who need an easy way to get around in China (identify people’s names, place names, names of products, items on a menu etc.)E: People outside of China who need easily-identifiable spellings for Chinese people and thingsRAQ 2: What is the purpose of romanization?Groups A & B: Romanization is supposed to correctly and unambiguously annotate the sounds of Chinese. Everything that sounds different to Chinese ears (initials 聲母, medials 介音, finals 韻母, and tones 聲調) should be explicitly marked when romanized. However, because of redundancies that are an integral part of Chinese phonology (音系規則, the Chinese sound system), people (especially computer users) can take shortcuts: tones are often left out, and IMEs (input method editors) can even ignore medials and finals (i.e. a computer user can type HYPY instead of hànyǔ pīnyīn: both yield the same result 漢語拼音).Group C: Foreign students are not aware of how Chinese sounds form patterns. Unlike native speakers, who learn phonology with their mother’s milk (so to speak), foreign beginners have definite trouble dealing with Hanyu Pinyin’s shorthand spellings.Hanyu Pinyin was designed for the convenience of native speakers of Chinese, so it is a less than ideal system for foreign learners, especially in the early stages.Group D: Tourists and short term visitors assume that Chinese is very difficult, so if they can go about their business without too much trouble, they are generally satisfied with Pinyin.Group E: This group has some limited, but very specific requirements that are not at all obvious to Chinese people who spend all their lives in a Chinese-only environment. Chinese people living in other countries need to be easily and unambiguously identified without referring to the Chinese characters of their names. This is where Hanyu Pinyin can cause EXTREMELY SERIOUS PROBLEMS.RAQ 3: Why should everyone use the same romanization?The five groups of users mentioned above have different needs that cannot all be properly served by Hanyu Pinyin. In the 1950s, when Hanyu Pinyin was designed, the world was a different place. The committee that set up and promulgated this romanization only needed to consider the needs of Chinese people within China. 60+ years later, the millions of Chinese who now live, travel or study abroad are affected by the shortcomings of Hanyu Pinyin’s shorthand spellings. Foreigners can also benefit from more than one approach.RAQ 4: Which problems does Pinyin (un)intentionally ignore?In 1956, Pinyin’s designers, who were influenced by Soviet linguists such as А. А. Драгунов 龍果夫, strove to create a simple China-only spelling system with single-letter spellings for each consonant. Thus, hard-to-type letters were used for common sounds: {ç = ch}, {ʐ = zh}, {ч = j}, {ŋ = ng}. Cyrillic, IPA and Latin letters were mixed together with no thought given to ease of use on standard ASCII typewriter keyboards: Robert Matthews (馬學進)'s answer to Why did the Chinese language begin using Latin letters for Pinyin?The 1958 final revision of Hanyu Pinyin finally settled on an all-Latin alphabet solution “with Chinese characteristics”, including some unique letter values that are not commonly used by European languages, such as q, x, z, c, u and i.Thus, people whose family name is either 徐 Xú or 許 Xǔ (both very common Chinese surnames: Shyu & Sheu in GR Tonal Spelling) are both spelled Xu, which many speakers of English will assume is pronounced the same as “Zoo”. Gross mispronunciations aside, Hanyu Pinyin can lead to much more serious problems.Because Pinyin tone marks are optional, the foreigner-readable versions of birth certificates, diplomas, degrees, household registration papers, hospital records, leases, licenses, passports and other documents do not show tones.Readers may ask: So what? Foreigners can’t pronounce tones anyway! What difference does it make?Here’s why. Including tones, Mandarin Chinese has about 1200 different syllables. For the sake of argument, let us assume that each and every syllable in Mandarin could be used as part of a name (obviously not true). Because most Chinese names consist of three syllables, GR Tonal Spelling could be used to write a maximum of 1200*1200*1200 = 1,728,000,000 phonetically distinctive names (although this would never be attempted, such a scheme would theoretically be enough for every person in China to have a unique name).https://www.quora.com/How-many-possible-syllables-are-there-in-Chinese-Mandarin/answer/Robert-Matthews-%E9%A6%AC%E5%AD%B8%E9%80%B2However, because Hanyu Pinyin omits tones, there is only a maximum of 400*400*400 = 64,000,000 distinctive names. Chinese names spelled in GR Tonal Spelling are much more distinctive than toneless Hanyu Pinyin names. 1,728,000,000 [GR] / 64,000,000 [PY] = 27 times more distinctive!Another way to put this: omitting the tones in romanized three-character Chinese names leads to potential information loss of as much as 96%.RAQ 5: How is 1928 GR Tonal Spelling better than 1958 Hanyu Pinyin?[Animated GIF: How abandoning GR Tonal Spelling led to scrambled Chinese surnames][Animated GIF: Different-Sounding Chinese Surnames That Are Unfortunately Blended In Pinyin]GR Tonal Spelling (a.k.a. Gwoyeu Romatzyh, National Phonetic Alphabet Version 2) was created by a small subgroup (數人會) of the committee responsible for creating National Phonetic Alphabet Version 1 (also known by the name Bopomofo or the anachronistic spelling Zhuyin Fuhao).The most important scholar behind the creation and popularization of GR Tonal Spelling is China’s greatest modern linguist, 趙元任 Chao Yuenren, a genius educated in the US who used his knowledge of mathematics, physics, music theory, phonetics and Chinese phonology to create a system based on “native speaker intuition” that also takes English orthographic habits into account (blending the two was not at all an easy task).GR Tonal Spelling is a “green” romanization that follows the Principle of Economy 經濟原則 and its three basic rules: keep, change, add 留改加. The 1st tone is usually the basic, unmodified form (“Keep”). The other three tones are spelled by making minimal changes to the basic form (“Change”), usually a different spelling for a glide vowel. If this is not possible, a letter is added (“Add”).Thus, tiau is a first tone form (spelled tiao in Hanyu Pinyin). The other three tones are spelled tyau, teau and tiaw. Notice how in each case the shape of the glide letter imitates the tone contour: The red bolded strokes of “y”, “e” and “w” are GIANT, indelible tone marks typable on any ASCII keyboard. They also provide valuable mnemonics for foreign learners struggling to remember the correct tones of words such as mae 買 and may 賣: “buy” and “sell”.Robert Matthews (馬學進)'s answer to As an English speaker, what's the best way to learn Chinese?[Animated GIF: 2nd tone tiau → tyau in GR Tonal Spelling; the tone mark is blended with the spelling of the medial vowel][Animated GIF: 3rd tone tiau → teau in GR Tonal Spelling; the tone mark is blended with the spelling][Animated GIF: 4th tone tiau → tiaw in GR Tonal Spelling; 4th tones are always marked at the end of a syllable: the tone mark is blended with the spelling]For almost 1900 years (since the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty), the 反切 fǎnqiè / faanchieh system has been used to indicate the pronunciation of Chinese characters.Each Chinese syllable is split into two parts: 聲母 shēngmǔ/shengmuu “the initial” (the single consonant, if any, at the beginning of a syllable) and 韻母yùnmǔ/yunnmuu “the final” (the rest of the syllable, including the tone). Bopomofo modifies this tradition by using 2-4 symbols to represent each syllable.First tone 張 (a common surname) is marked in Bopomofo with only 2 symbols, ㄓ+ㄤ (first tone is not explicitly marked).GR Tonal Spelling, Bopomofo’s younger brother, is similarly economical. Only four letters are needed for 張: j+ang (just like in the faanchieh system, ang includes the first tone).Fourth tone 賬 (account) is marked in Bopomofo with three symbols, ㄓ+ㄤ+ˋ, and GR Tonal Spelling still only requires four letters: j+anq (again, just like in the faanchieh system, anq includes the fourth tone).Hanyu Pinyin follows the all or nothing European approach of either ignoring all tones or marking all of them with tiny optional diacritics not found on ASCII keyboards. Pinyin thus uses 6 symbols for 1st tone 張 z+h+a+ˉ+n+g (a+ˉ are combined) and six symbols for 4th tone 賬 z+h+a+ˋ+n+g (a+ˋ are combined)Hanyu Pinyin is a system better suited to native speakers who are intimately familiar with the Mandarin phonological system.Thus, in Hanyu Pinyin the letters “i” and “u” have multiple pronunciations:(1) When “i” is preceded by z, c, or s, it is automatically pronounced as an unusual (for European ears) apical vowel /ɿ/, a mosquito-like buzzing sound.(2) When “i” is preceded by zh, ch or sh, it is pronounced as a similar-sounding /ʅ/.(3) When “i” is preceded by any other consonant and not followed by any other vowel letter, it is pronounced as a very different-sounding “normal” vowel /i/.(4) When “i” is preceded by any other consonant and followed by any other vowel letter, it is pronounced as a semi-vowel /j/.(5) When “i” is preceded by “u”, it is pronounced as /ej/ (not /ui/), as in 對 dui “correct”Hanyu Pinyin’s “u” follows similar rules.(1) When “u” is preceded by z, c, or s, it is pronounced as /u/.(2) When “u” is preceded by zh, ch or sh and not followed by any other vowel letter, it is pronounced as /u/.(3) When “u” is preceded by zh, ch or sh and followed by any other vowel letter, it is pronounced as a semi-vowel /w/.(4) When “u” is preceded by j, q, x, but not followed by any other vowel letter, “u” is pronounced as a front rounded semivowel /y/.(5) When “u” is preceded by j, q, x, but followed by any other vowel letter, it is pronounced as a semi-vowel /ɥ/ (palatal approximant)(6) When “u” is preceded by “i”, it is pronounced as /jow/, as in 休 xiu “to rest”, pronounced /ɕjow/, not /ziu/.Despite this hidden complexity, many foreigners who cut their teeth on Hanyu Pinyin swear by it and insist that it is much easier and more “reasonable” than GR Tonal Spelling (Gwoyeu Romatzyh)’s traditional 反切 based approach, with its three basic rules.Hanyu Pinyin economizes on symbols by assuming that its users are native speakers who can figure out what sounds right (“i” and “u” rules) automatically. Foreign beginners and casual readers (people who only occasionally need to pronounce Chinese words) have a very difficult time.GR combines Bopomofo’s traditional Chinese 反切 analysis with an ingenious spelling system that is mnemonically-based (letters with shapes that resemble tone contours are used to spell tones) and much more foreigner-friendly than Hanyu Pinyin (even foreigners who have never learned any Chinese at all can usually make a passable guess).Basically, whatever looks different in Gwoyeu Romatzyh sounds different to Chinese ears, and whatever sounds different looks different, including the four tones of Mandarin Chinese.GR Tonal Spelling (Gwoyeu Romatzyh) is widely used for spelling the names of well-educated people in Taiwan (doctors, lawyers, professors etc.).In Hanyu Pinyin, the following four names (Shy, Shyr, Shyy and Shyh) are blended together. Millions of people are forced to share one artificial giant surname (Shī + Shí + Shǐ + Shì → Shi) created for administrative convenience when producing foreigner-readable documents. Typing tone diacritics is a hassle: let Mr. Chabuduo handle everything.Professors, doctors etc. who use GR Tonal Spelling (painstakingly verified characters and professional details)[1st tone surname 施 SHy in GR Tonal Spelling] [Shī][2nd tone surname 石 SHyr in GR Tonal Spelling] [Shí][3rd tone surname 史 SHyy in GR Tonal Spelling] [Shǐ][4th tone surname 釋 SHyh in GR Tonal Spelling] [釋 is a surname adopted by Buddhists who give up their worldly property, including their original surnames] [Shì]A real-life example of potential confusion:(1) The PRC Ambassador to the German Federal Republic is 史明德 (spelled Shǐ Míngdé in “official” Pinyin).(2) Taiwan’s most famous political activist is 施明德 (spelled Shī Míngdé in “official” Pinyin).Imagine the confusion and embarrassment that would result if the PRC ambassador (Shi Mingde in “Street” Pinyin) was erroneously refused entry to a country that had banned the Taiwan activist (they seem to have exactly the same name)!Such problems could be easily eliminated if Chinese names were written using GR Tonal Spelling. 史明德, the ambassador, would be spelled Shyy Mingder and 施明德, the political activist, would be spelled Shy Mingder. The 1928 official spelling prevented such unfortunate misunderstandings.In Taiwan, even people with less common names use GR Tonal Spelling:[Surnames Jin 金 and Jinn 靳 (GR Tonal Spelling, Gwoyeu Romatzyh)]Surnames Bau 包 and Baw 鮑1. Professor Bau Da-Tian 包大靝http://webap.cmu.edu.tw/TchEportfolio/index_1/dtbauGraduate Institute of Biomedical Sciences, China Medical University2. Dr. Bau Tzong-ho 包宗和Professor of Department of Political Science, National Taiwan University監察院 - 人權主題網 ─ Members1. Aser Baw 鮑美瑟Animal Behavior Resource AssociationABRA國際認證訓練師資歷：2014 第二屆亞洲訓練師行為治療師培訓取得ABRA國際認證 LE 資格2. Wayne Baw 鮑維芳Wayne Baw 鮑維芳 (@waynebaw)https://www.linkedin.com/in/wayne-baw-9438a559/3. Spencer Baw鮑穎https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-4o7m65Xt6KAZejhUqT5FwIdentity Theft And Other Serious Problems Caused By Spelling ConfusionOutside of China, Hanyu Pinyin’s toneless version can lead to or facilitate:1) Mistaken Identity Arrests2) Identity Theft3) Credit Card Fraud4) Medical ErrorAll of these problems can cause financial pain or have life-changing consequences, such as job loss, imprisonment or even worse.1) Mistaken Identity ArrestsA policeman conducting a routine traffic stop may wind up arresting the driver. Why?For one thing, suspect descriptions on warrants can apply to many people: “A black-haired, thin Chinese man in his 20s”. Having a non-distinctive (no tones indicated), Pinyin-only name that is identical to the one on a warrant certainly wouldn’t help.[this subsection was upgraded from my reply to a comment by Ni Ming]:Taiwanese police have an excellent reputation for tracking down criminals and cracking difficult cases. I'm sure the mainland police are equally intelligent and professionally dedicated. Unfortunately, such praise is hard to apply to their American militarized counterparts, who have a reputation for shooting first and asking questions later.Even small town police departments use SWAT teams and armored personnel carriers to handle routine, non-violent cases (such as seizing a child with a fever late at night to take it to see a doctor). They use battering rams to smash down doors, shoot family dogs (even a chihuahua has been viewed as a “threat”) and leave extensive trauma in their wake, especially when they barge in on completely innocent people.If you Google “cops” + “wrong house”, or “cops” + “shoot dog”, you will get a flavor. I very much doubt American cops will stand patiently while listening to an explanation of the subtle tonal difference between three different Chinese surnames who are forced to share one single toneless spelling.Sara Angell's answer to Have you ever read something about yourself in your own medical notes that shocked you?Real people with false homonym namesForeigners outside of China have no way of knowing that 古真福, 顧振福, 辜振甫, 辜振富 are four different people. If they have PRC-issued ID documents, all four seem to have exactly the same name: Gu Zhenfu.Hanyu Pinyin: Gu Zhenfu ← Gǔ Zhēnfú, Gù Zhènfú, Gū Zhènfǔ, Gū ZhènfùThese are all real people:"古真福" - Google Search"顧振福" - Google Search"辜振甫" - Google Search辜振富 (Facebook)GR Tonal Spelling (different people, different names): Guu Jenfwu, Guh Jennfwu, Gu Jennfuu, GU JennfuhIf any one of these people commits a crime (such as ignoring a pile of unpaid parking tickets), the other three could mistakenly be arrested by a policeman whose warrant only says “Gu Zhenfu: wanted for being a scofflaw”.American police don’t fool around. Strictly following the law and making arrests improves their chances of promotion. What’s not to like?法律就是法律，美國警察不講人情.These supposed scofflaws will be thrown in jail, and they will wait for a judge to (hopefully) sort out the mess. How many innocent Chinese people have suffered because of an incomplete romanization that doesn’t work properly outside of China?1. Why Mistaken Identity Arrests Happen2. Can You Be Arrested with a Warrant for Someone Else? | WK LawBeing arrested, even if later proven to be a mistake, can have financial (expensive lawyers) and social consequences (job loss, shunning, shaming of one’s children), and there is sometimes nothing one can do.3. Man jailed based on mistaken identity can't sue, court rules***Examples of Mistaken Arrests Due to Having the Same Name1. Man With Accused Criminal's Name Battles Mistaken Identity2. Man Sues Police Over Mistaken Identity Arrest | Hartford Criminal Defense Attorney3. Woman held in case of mistaken identity to seek compensation [New Zealand]4. Innocent man arrested, jailed twice because of name5. This Woman Lost Kids and Job After Being Mistaken for Drug Trafficking Suspect with Same Name6. Mistaken identity leads to physical arrest of Victorville man at his front door7. Mistaken identity of same-name men causes wrong arrest by Edmond policehttps://www.edmondsun.com/news/mistaken-identity-of-same-name-men-causes-wrong-arrest-by/article_5715e26c-455d-11e6-bc1a-2fe6dfc0ba42.html8. When the Only Crime is a Common Name...9. Grandmother Arrested, Spends 5 Days in Jail.....Whoops, Wrong Person.2) Identity Theft3) Credit Card FraudIdentity theft is a serious problem that is often connected with credit card fraud. Because the US does not have a national ID card, other types of ID are used, some of which are easily forged.A case in point is signatures. Because they are not intimately familiar with Latin alphabet handwriting, many Chinese rely on a very simple foreign signature that is easily copied (to combat this problem in my university language classes, I often included instruction in cursive handwriting).Handwriting University Forgery Proof[Unhappy Consequences of Using Toneless Pinyin On Foreign Documents]A. Report: Medical Identity Theft – The Information Crime that Can Kill YouDefinition: “when someone uses an individual's identifying information, such as their health insurance information or social security number, without the individual's knowledge or permission, to obtain medical services or goods, or to obtain money by falsifying claims for medical services and falsifying medical records to support those claims.”Medical Identity theft can have all sorts of cserious consequences, including:1. Financial losses (you may be required to pay for someone elese’s expensive medical care),2. Harm from false entries in your medical record (such as being given the wrong type of blood)3. Insurance caps reached (Someone may have used up all of your coverage; any further treatment may be prohibitively expensive)Victims of medical identity theft find out the truth in many unexpected ways:1. collection notices (a collection agency insists that you have to pay a penalty for unpaid bills that have nothing to do with you)2. Notification by law enforcement, an insurance company, or a health care provider that you have a problem3. Your insurance company tells you that benefits have run out, or a “lifetime cap” has been reached (you have supposedly used up all of the benefits provided by your medical insurance)Report: Medical Identity Theft - The Information Crime that Can Kill YouB. Exploring Medical Identity TheftDesla Mancilla, MPA, RHIA, principal investigator and Jackie Moczygemba, MBA, RHIA, CCS, secondary investigator, associate professorPerspect Health Inf Manag. 2009; 6(Fall): 1e. || PMCID: PMC2804460 || PMID: 20169017Exploring Medical Identity TheftC. Medical Identity Theft in the Emergency Department: Awareness is CrucialMichelino Mancini, DOWest J Emerg Med. 2014 Nov; 15(7): 899–901. || doi: 10.5811/westjem.2014.8.22438 || PMCID: PMC4251251 || PMID: 25493150“According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), medical identity theft accounted for 3% of identity theft crimes, or 249,000 of the estimated 8.3 million people who had their identities stolen in 2005. More recently, the Ponemon Institute calculated that there were 1.84 million victims of medical identity theft in 2013.”Medical Identity Theft in the Emergency Department: Awareness is CrucialImage Credits (Public Domain images)Digital Camera, Happy Tooth images by Clker-Free-Vector-Images (Clker-Free-Vector-Images | Pixabay)Bubbleman images by Peggy und Marco Lachmann-Anke from Pixabay (3dman_eu | Pixabay)Blender image: OpenClipart-Vectors from PixabayShi Mingde (the bigshot): CC BY-SA Raimond SpekkingShi Mingde (the Taiwanese activist): Public Domain image

With a MSW and an interest in education you are in an ideal position to be employed by a school district to service the education counseling needs of families of students with disabilities, and / or families of students who have frequent, unexcused absences (truancies).To become self employed you can become an education advocate and accept private clients. The best way in California to become an education advocate is to become a CASA (Court Appointed Special Assistant). CASAs are trained in education law and then assigned to work on a case, under a judge's direction and supervision, on a pro bono basis (without pay). It is a fast way to learn the law.Self study to hone your education advocacy skills and to supplement your legal knowledge is free via Www.wrightslaw.com. Professor Pete Wright from the University of Virginia School of Law also provides a vast amount of commentary and insight, with case studies and valuable insight by advocates and lawyers, parents and social workers with real experience all over the country. I think the best way to learn education law is to read the law, beginning with every case referred to in Professor Wright's website.I once worked as staff attorney for the Education Advocacy Project of the Disability Rights Legal Center (DRLC) Www.disabilityrightslegalcenter.orgDRLC publishes a Learning Rights Manual with sample letters which education advocates and parents can consider when tailoring communication to schools on behalf of parents as holders of the education rights of their children.