Vivre la Difference

I’ll admit to being surprised to see how many teacher assistants there were: 1.3 million according to the BLS. Obviously things have changed in the 30 years since I left the educational system.

To those slightly more in touch with the modern world the job will be familiar. Supervising things like meal times and breaks, as well as helping those who need it in the classroom. There’s also a certain amount of setting up of equipment and the like, along with the grading of tests.

The educational requirements can vary from simply a high school diploma to a two year college degree for those doing more teaching. As with so many other careers, those with the higher qualifications, that two year college degree (or even just two years of college) are going to be in greater demand. This might also be a good way into teaching for some. You can find out whether you actually like teaching children or not plus many school districts will then pay tuition for you to get your full college degree and thus become a teacher, along with the time necessary to do the studying.

As for our EQSQ personality tests, this is really rather simple to place along the spectrum I think. A lot of the work will be with special needs children, as the schools become ever more inclusive, and so there is an element of this job which is akin to nursing. This is definitely an empathic job, one for the female brain types. One further thing: there is a definite hunger to get men who have the necessary empathy to go into the career, as there is such a shortage of male role models in the education system.

One of the problems we face in getting people to take the EQSQ personality tests seriously is that there are so many entirely foolish personality tests out there. For example, this one for BUPA (a health insurer) reported in the English papers.

Now, they do get to the right answer, that many people are unhappy in their jobs. Further, they even manage to diagnose why. Some people are more creative than others, so should be in jobs where that creativity is given free reign. (Although one example they use of a non-creative job is accountancy. Really? Have the not heard of Enron or WorldCom?) Others are “people” people, what we might call empathic. Yet other groups are systemizers, detail orientated and so on. Yes, there are jobs that require those skills and talents and other things being equal, people will enjoy doing jobs that play to their talents.

So, OK, they get to the right answers but that still doesn’t help us in trying to get people to take such personality tests seriously. For the tests consisted of choosing which color and which shape best suited your own personality (or your own estimation of your personality). A circle meant you were calm and balanced while a square that you were confident and clear-thinking.

Where on earth do they get such ideas from? No, sorry, far better to take our EQSQ personality tests, drawn up by a proper professional, and see what your aptitudes are that way.