Hello my fellow Subetans: I hate to interrupt everyone while the Quest-a-thon and Gelatin War are going on, but I have some concerns I need to validate.

This hypothetical person is going through the process to work as a teacher’s aide (particularly for preschoolers/kindergartens). The person in question has these personality traits:

-They consistently point out the negative traits of a person and rarely give out encouragement. -When questioned about something directly related to them, they try to deflect to someone else’s issue or problem instead of answering the question they were asked. -They criticize others’ methods of doing a task when they themselves have little knowledge of the particular task. -When called out on a particular behavior, this person becomes defensive and angry.

Would you hire a person with those traits? I would like everyone who replies to this question to please explain their answer.

P.S. I would greatly appreciate it someone who is a teacher themselves (or someone related to the teaching field) to provide their thoughts. And sorry if this topic in in the wrong area! (I’m pinging because you are a mother and have more life experience than I do )

Anger cannot be a trait in a teacher's aide. Even if all the other traits are subjective, anger in a person working with children is not acceptable.

(At first I thought you were being funny and describing Trump)

Whaaaat is this ping. I'm guessing those "traits" aren't all that they are, everyone has more than one dimension.

not a teacher nor a parent, so feel free to disregard this comment if you wish.

you're setting this person up to lose here. obviously no one would hire them if all they knew about them were the traits you just listed. what are their pros? do the cons apply to situations that could occur during their new career? from what i gather, being a teacher's aide means a lot of on the job training. they wouldn't get away with the behavior listed above in the presence of a teacher. maybe these traits wouldn't apply at all when they work with students / children. idk, there isn't a great amount of context to work with here.

This person in question can have positive traits (being honest or dependable) but my main concern is if whether the traits I described can hinder them if they got the job.

Yes, I have concerns about these negative traits coming into play during their career. In recent years there have been teachers getting into trouble and getting fired because they are doing things they aren't supposed to be doing with students (I know the actual situations in the news are completely different for what I described here).

not a parent, not a teacher, not a lot of life experience, but let's give this a try, and feel free to disregard.

someone above me pointed out that when working with children [=people who are very sensitive to criticism, and generally sensitive], one can't show their anger or frustrations. i'm not sure what a teacher's aide does, but i assume is there to help the teaching and learning process [therefore to help both teacher and students]. some students [and even some adults] have a harder time understanding things, and this can be frustrating for those who try to teach them those things. frustration easily leads to anger. and the same thing can happen 10 times a day, every day, every week.

clearly such a person is not really fit to have this position.. :( at least not without good anger management skills [which i personally lack].

on the other hand, the person who does the hiring might not know about these traits [like in the case when nobody recommends that person for the position]. so the hiring body doesn't know about the traits during the interview, but they can show up at any time after getting hired, and said teacher aide could lose their position. [depending on what they do, how they do it, so on].

the person might be able to be relatively successful if they worked with older children or young adults in a high school or university setting, i assume.. i'm thinking it would be easier to talk to students of those ages...

reading your post made me wonder if you were talking about me, lol, but that's impossible - i don't want to work as a teacher's aide, and i don't know you in person. XD i kinda fit that description like a glove, ooops, and i know for a fact i would do a terrible job with working with kids/children, on a regular basis.

i also understand the person needs a job to survive, so i wish them good luck. i'm sure they will find a job that will match their skills.

- I'm not a teacher, aide, or parent. Also, my answer varies depending on whether the hiring party knows the person or not.

I think I understood the question correctly? There's not much info to go off of. :x

A. Said person is a stranger to the hiring party

People can act totally different on the job. Just because this person is defensive around you doesn't mean they'll be that way at work. The hiring party isn't going to know about the traits you know... all they'll see is the person they interview.

Now, if the person in question starts to display these traits and it affects their work, then that's what'll happen. Their manager(s) can choose to give them a chance and advice on how to improve or fire them.

B. Said person knows the hiring party

Are there other traits of this person? Are they good around children and are able responsible? These traits may greatly outweigh the negative traits listed to the hiring party and the person ends up being hired.

People who seem awful initially can turn out to be wonderful workers later and vice versa.

i agree that anger has no place in a school, but are you certain they are this way with students? some people are capable of being quick to anger in their daily life, but can be patient angels when put in a tutoring position. it's possible they are very much aware of their flaws (despite not admitting them to you, or other people) and would work hard not to act on them in a potentially new workplace. it's just hard to judge from your post alone, considering you only listed their negative traits and there isn't much context.

I appreciate your honesty. And this person, hypothetically, is going to be around preschoolers/kindergarteners I think?

I agree with Point B to a degree. If those negative traits I mentioned keep occurring in the workplace, it might become an issue. Just like you said earlier.

i've just finished this job and i'm going on to start an actual teaching degree in september :) it does kind of depend on the age range as well. are they doing primary or secondary? i worked alongside a teacher in a primary school and she openly welcomed my suggestions/critics and she also critiqued anything of mine if she didn't agree. but i wouldn't necessarily think it's best to be consistently negative. teaching is super difficult and a lot of teachers don't feel like they're doing enough as it is so to "consistently point out the negative traits" as you put it won't really bode too well.

and i think they also need to be very critical of them-self. i went into my job thinking it was going to be really easy, but it is a really difficult and straining job. they have to learn how to deal with things they've never had to deal with before and then think about how to relate that to someone a lot younger. everyone in the workplace (for me at least!) was always very helpful and would give advice where needed, but never in a mean way that would cause someone to want to be defensive.

all in all, thinking about the things that i want when i become a teacher, i wouldn't want someone like this working alongside me in the classroom. but i think the characteristics you've described are a little harsh because people do respond differently in different situations and workplaces. i'm a very sweary, impatient and critical person but it's very easy to completely turn your behaviour around when you're setting an example to a group of young people.

so basically, as long as the person wants to really help impact the life of the people they're setting an example to, are happy to accept that the teacher they can work with can be pretty set in their ways of how they teach and can realise that it's a lot harder job than it seems, then i think they should go for it!

I currently Am a teacher's assistant, and with just the information given I would say that's not exactly the best personality to work with kids in the type of environment where they need encouragement (and the teacher as well at times!). BUT makes a valid point. They must have some sort of pro to their personality, what are they? Also, what age of child would they want to work with? Older high school age might be a Little tougher than say a kindergartner, but they are still going through important times of their lives and need positive attitudes. There Is some on the job training (at least where I am), but it would also depend on who's doing the hiring, what They are looking for in a person, and also maybe whether this hypothetical person has ever been around kids.
[This example might not make sense, but please bear with me..] Example: My sister loves dogs. Always has. She has mostly loved the Idea of a large breed dog. But when a large breed puppy showed up lost on our porch one morning, and we had to take care of it for about six weeks, she found that she was actually more of a cat person. (we have a cat too, and she still loves dogs, but..) Example2: My other sister has a lady working at her school that at one glance you wouldn't expect her to work well with the children. (She has a very biker chick look going. No offense to biker chicks, but it's not what you usually see in a classroom.) Turns out, she's really good with the kids. Maybe this hypothetical person just needs to spend some time with kids and find out if that's the type of career they want to go in to. But keep in mind, these are growing lives and minds that need nurtured. (Like a bit of playdoh. They could become a bit of art, or a bunch of crumbs. It just depends on how you treat it.) Personal experience: I thought I didn't even like kids until a friend asked me to fill in for her at our church (with three year olds o.o"). Years later, I find myself still working with kids (older now) and actually enjoying it. It's a lot harder than it sounds, but when they come back years later to give you a hug... it's worth it to me. That being said, it's Not for everybody. It can be Hard physically and mentally sometimes. But this person might give it a try if they really feel they could be good with kids. Sometimes it's easier to talk to kids than adults. ;)

<3 good luck though

Skylar above said that the person COULD act differently around people of certain age. who knows, maybe the person simply doesn't like adults..? and therefore acts in a negative way around them.

thinking about it more, i say the person should try and get the job anyways. regardless of their personality, the person should also see how do they like this job - if they like what they do, perhaps it will be easy for them not to display said negative traits.

assuming that i were in the position to hire such a person, i probably would hire them if i personally knew they're angels around children. if my gut feeling told me there is something wrong with them, i might not hire them...

I worked as a teacher's aid in kindergarten - now granted it wasn't a career choice, only an interim job. Many of those traits could be mine, some more, some less. But I never behaved that way around the children.

However, there's a huge difference between doing that as a career and doing it as a job for a few years. I would definitely encourage such a person to look at a different career choice. On the other hand, if they really enjoy working with children, it might make it easier to suppress some of those tendencies. I didn't particularly like working with children, so it was hard work to keep sunny and kind at all times.

Now would I hire such a person? Truly, I don't know. It would depend on a lot of factors, like what else they would bring to the job.

Hello! I've been a TA and now a teacher for several years now. I've seen those kind of personalities in both teachers and TAs that I currently work with, and I have to say, if I had a choice, I would NOT hire them unless they can acknowledge they have this problem and can CONTROL it when around the kids. (And I would still be hesitant.)

These other staff members I work with, who have these personalities, are very hard to work with. It's bad enough when having to work with them as adults, but many times they'll get to talking in front of the kids. For some reason they think children are deaf and can't hear it when they're complaining or criticizing. This can make the kids, and other adults, very uncomfortable and doesn't set a good example. Kids hear put downs enough when they're at home; they don't need to hear it at school. When you work at a school, for any age group, you have to leave your problems at the door.

This person could have a fantastic teacher whom that person chooses to emulate. This person could be really bad around grownups and really wonderful with children. This person could be a real hot head and incredibly loyal and protective of the kiddies. It's hard to tell. People can be very surprising. (I am a TA. At one point in my life I would have said those traits about myself)

I've been an aide and a teacher, but never a parent.

This person will either not be hired, be hired and adjust to workplace expectations, or be hired and get fired. It's irrelevant if this person is great with children if this person can't cooperate with other adults. A teacher's aide is meant to assist the teachers and help the students. Working together with adults, acting appropriately as someone in a subordinate role, and following directions from superiors is essential for aides.

Someone who's not a team player will not be welcome or succeed professionally in education. The turnover for paraprofessionals is too high and someone who detracts from a positive workplace environment is very easily replaced. Someone with a poor attitude will face many challenges trying to get ahead in any professional setting. A good paraprofessional is an invaluable resource, but the bad ones are neither highly educated nor highly trained (in terms of relevancy to the position). Bad aides and substitutes have trouble relating to students and/or cooperating with other adults.

Teacher here- if this person has these issues and they become a problem in their work, they will be let go. But I work with several classroom aides (at the middle and high school level) who are nasty with adults outside their professional lives but very good with kids. They're cold and barely civil with coworkers, but in some cases what we care about most is making sure our kids get their services. Granted, these aides are all Special Education.

In the case of a regular classroom aide, who remains in the classroom regardless of whether or not there are kids there who needs services...people like the one you describe ruined my 5th grade year and made me hate and doubt myself. I was ridiculed and accused of things I didn't do by a grown woman who couldn't handle being in a classroom with gifted kids.

If that's the position this person is applying for, they need to stop now and find some job where they don't interact with children.