Why I Started The Silent Assist
I’ve been an Educational Assistant for over 10 years, working across all grade levels — from Kindergarten to Grade 12 — and even supporting adults with special needs in a college setting. I've worked in almost every kind of classroom you can imagine: behavioral, developmental, inclusive, and everything in between.
But I didn’t start here.
Before this, I was a laborer. It wasn’t until I was 35 that I made the decision to go back to school and earn my diploma in Educational Support. In my second semester, during a co-op placement, I was offered a position before I even graduated. That job changed my life.
Today, I work for both school boards in Hamilton, Ontario as an itinerant EA — bouncing from school to school, classroom to classroom, supporting whoever needs a hand that day. I've stayed because of the students. I've stayed because I believe in what I do.
But it's not all heartwarming stories and high-fives.
What started as a calling to help turned into something harder to explain — a career that’s fulfilling and exhausting, inspiring and infuriating. The truth is, it’s not the students that wear me down. It’s the adults. The constant dismissal, the lack of respect, the way EAs are treated like background noise in the very classrooms they help hold together.
That’s why I started The Silent Assist.
To tell the truth. To share what this work really looks like.
To give a voice to the people quietly keeping classrooms together from the back of the room.
This is my story — and maybe yours too.