everyone fools themselves into thinking that they were much better than the students’ previous teachers.
I’m friends with a couple of teachers—some of them are more excited about it than others, and those that are less excited aren’t fooling themselves. I’d guess there’s a large amount of sampling bias here, in that teachers who write about their problems and education policy tend to care more than teachers who don’t. I would guess that that would lead them both to be better teachers AND to be more motivated to convince themselves they were better.
Most of the teachers I know have only been teachers for one year (I just finished my second year of grad school—some friends from undergrad got their credentials and just finished their first year of teaching) and I don’t talk to them about their students very much, so I don’t really have personal experience with longer term effects (or lack thereof).
I haven’t thought much about it because I find the underlying sentiment sort of skeevy (if I give myself time to reflect this effect is often diminished I think) but also because I’m busy and not interested in teaching below university level, at which point selection effects kick in.
I’m friends with a couple of teachers—some of them are more excited about it than others, and those that are less excited aren’t fooling themselves. I’d guess there’s a large amount of sampling bias here, in that teachers who write about their problems and education policy tend to care more than teachers who don’t. I would guess that that would lead them both to be better teachers AND to be more motivated to convince themselves they were better.
Did you read the original post? Does it match what you observe?
Most of the teachers I know have only been teachers for one year (I just finished my second year of grad school—some friends from undergrad got their credentials and just finished their first year of teaching) and I don’t talk to them about their students very much, so I don’t really have personal experience with longer term effects (or lack thereof).
I haven’t thought much about it because I find the underlying sentiment sort of skeevy (if I give myself time to reflect this effect is often diminished I think) but also because I’m busy and not interested in teaching below university level, at which point selection effects kick in.