Chapter 10: From Debilitating Teacher Self-Perceptions to Enhancing Teacher Self-Perceptions

Have you ever been in a social setting where people introduce themselves by telling what they do for a living? Perhaps a bank teller, a construction manager, a nurse, and an accountant are in your circle. If you say you are a kindergarten teacher, the theme of the comments may be “They’re so cute at that age.” If you say you teach high school math, there may be a certain sense of admiration quickly followed by statements similar to: “I don’t know what’s wrong with kids today.” If you say you teach seventh grade language arts, people have been known to back away, not wanting to “catch” whatever insanity has possessed you to dedicate your life to 13-year-olds they perceive as dysfunctional. And so it goes....