It’s funny sometimes just how huge an impact a little decision can have when you’re young. When I graduated from high school, I would never have imagined that I would end up working in the field of education. And yet…
When I was a university student (and short of cash), someone suggested that I apply for a job as a language assistant. Without knowing quite what the heck a language assistant was, I went to the interview and answered the questions as best I could. And somehow, I was offered the job. Lucky me!
I was a language assistant for Grades 7 and 8, and then at the secondary level. I must say that it wasn’t always easy to deal with teachers who didn’t always know exactly what to do with a language assistant, or with students who didn’t necessarily like the activities I proposed. Still, I got the bug. I loved working in an educational setting, and I particularly enjoyed working with youth.
Ever since, I’ve devoted myself completely to that world. I worked as a facilitator at language-immersion school camps, taught evening courses to adults, worked in summer camps,… In short, I completely changed my career path. Goodbye to interminable hours in the world of international finance! Hello to days of joy in the not-always-easy world of teaching! I went on to teach Kindergarten to Grade 8, worked as an academic counsellor, and gave workshops all over Ontario, Quebec, and even in Europe. Then I became a school principal, first at elementary school, and later at high-school level. Eventually, I became an education officer in the ministry of education (you might well ask what the heck an education officer is — you’ll have to find that out for yourself…). And throughout my 20-year career in education, the language-assistant program was a part of my work, whether as a teacher supervising a language assistant, a local program organizer for my school board, or a facilitator for language-assistant training sessions.
Pretty good, you might say. Indeed. But, without a doubt, I wouldn’t have made it here if not for the job I took on when I was only 21.
My thanks to the language-assistant program, which opened so many doors for me.
