In a variety of books and articles, Jean M. Twenge of San Diego State University and W. Keith Campbell of the University of Georgia have collected data suggesting that American self-confidence has risen of late. College students today are much more likely to agree with statements such as “I am easy to like” than college students 30 years ago. In the 1950s, 12 percent of high school seniors said they were a “very important person.” By the ’90s, 80 percent said they believed that they were.
In short, there’s abundant evidence to suggest that we have shifted a bit from a culture that emphasized self-effacement ”” I’m no better than anybody else, but nobody is better than me ”” to a culture that emphasizes self-expansion.
Writers like Twenge point out that young people are bathed in messages telling them how special they are. Often these messages are untethered to evidence of actual merit. Over the past few decades, for example, the number of hours college students spend studying has steadily declined. Meanwhile, the average G.P.A. has steadily risen.
I found this very thought-provoking and would like to say that this rise in (unwarranted) self-esteem is not solely a US phenomenon. Here in the UK teachers have commented a lot lately on how dangerous it is to criticize a child in the classroom, because they run the risk of a parent coming round the next day saying, ‘How dare you criticize my child.’ Teachers cannot even be sure of the support of the head teacher (ie school principal) as s/he may concur with the parent that it is a bad thing to dent a child’s self-esteem.
I listened to a piece on this on [i]Mars Hill Audio[/i] a couple of years ago. Very thought-provoking, indeed!
I agree Terry (and Dennis),
[i]Ninety-four percent of college professors believe they have above-average teaching skills.[/i]
Count me among the six percent. 🙂
[i]Citizenship, after all, is built on an awareness that we are not all that special but are, instead, enmeshed in a common enterprise. Our lives are given meaning by the service we supply to the nation. I wonder if Americans are unwilling to support the sacrifices that will be required to avert fiscal catastrophe in part because they are less conscious of themselves as components of a national project.[/i]
Isn’t it interesting that we have heard so little from Congressmen (of both parties) about their willingness to reduce their own salaries and budgets?
As in many areas of life, the examples we’re set in childhood loom large. I certainly remember receiving from both my parents a strong sense of the importance of service and of Christian hospitality, because they were things to which one was called. And in their case, it was generally a case of “Do as I [b]Do[/b], Not as I Say.”
Well, wait a minute, Jeremy. You said, after quoting David Brooks:
“Ninety-four percent of college professors believe they have above-average teaching skills. ‘Count me among the six percent. smile'”
But David Brooks said:
“We’re an overconfident species. Ninety-four percent of college professors believe they have above-average teaching skills. A survey of high school students found that 70 percent of them have above-average leadership skills and only 2 percent are below average.”
Notice that the first statement is much harder to understand than the second. But that difference is smoothed over, and so we think that college professors, too, are “overconfident.”
In the second case it’s obvious who the comparison group is, while in the first case it isn’t. And that makes all the difference.
In the second case, the comparison group is other US high school students. But who is it in the first group? It could be any one of many different groups.
Take a professor–especially one of the 2/3 or so that have tenure–and she might well say her teaching skills are above average.
She’d pretty well have to. If she’s in the humanities, like me, then she received her appointment to this rare, coveted tenure-track position after beating out 400 other applicants, 90% of whom also had sterling credentials, including published articles and solid teaching experience. She had to show she had the stuff to be an excellent teacher–yes, far above average. Then, before gaining tenure, she will have been appraised from below, from the side, and from the top, over and over. And at virtually all liberal-arts colleges in America, excellence in teaching (yes, excellence) is the sine qua non of getting tenure.
As a result, the college professors I am familiar with–the vast majority of them–would acknowledge that, yes, their teaching skills are probably above average. C. S. Lewis, in Screwtape, would point out that that assessment is not hubris; it’s plain honesty.
But if we were asked if we’re better teachers than the other professors at our college, then I believe we’d all think about the terrific teaching we’ve seen–either in the classroom while observing (assessment from the side) or in faculty luncheon seminars or in conferences or special programs–and we’d definitely say, no, we’re not better than these folks, who in fact are on the whole wonderful teachers.
People will write in and say that professors at big universities are tenured mainly on the basis of their publications. I’ll just say that the majority of my undergraduate teachers at the University of Virginia were also really great teachers.
David,
You’re right. I had assumed that the survey question was asking the questioner their opinion of their teaching ability relative to their peer group. In retrospect, of course, my initial response was misleading since I was actually voicing what I [i]would[/i] say were I part of that peer group, so [i]mea culpa[/i].
At times I wonder whether the hiring process in the humanities these days really depends so much on ability – since, as you say, there are so many good scholars out there – as on more intangible factors and on connections.
Incidentally, I finally got to read your biography of Noble Powell in January. A nice piece of scholarship, if I may say so.
“I had assumed that the survey question was asking the questioner their opinion of their teaching ability relative to their peer group.”
The original survey undoubtedly made that clear.
“In retrospect, of course, my initial response was misleading since I was actually voicing what I would say were I part of that peer group….”
No, I agree; I’d say the same thing.
“At times I wonder whether the hiring process in the humanities these days really depends so much on ability – since, as you say, there are so many good scholars out there – as on more intangible factors and on connections.”
I’ve wondered that myself sometimes–especially as I have sought to move from where I have been for 28 years. I don’t know what more I can do. I’ve taught, published, etc., but it’s very hard to find opportunities for people in my category.
“Incidentally, I finally got to read your biography of Noble Powell in January. A nice piece of scholarship, if I may say so.”
You may–and thanks so much! You might enjoy the new one, just out from SPCK: “C. S. Lewis and Friends.”
Best wishes!
Oh, ain’t this the truth.
Just think, if I went to college now, I would have graduated with honors (at least).
One more crime we may add to the list of the Baby Boomers. The grade inflation (and its kin) all started in high school with the demand for greater “relevance” in curricula during the sixties. So the hard work was thrown out and in came peace studies and gender studies and lifestyle studies. I was a dept chair through all of this and had this ….shoved down my throat. And then suddenly, one could NOT flunk a student for not performing because it damaged his self esteem., Larry
“One more crime we may add to the list of the Baby Boomers. The grade inflation (and its kin) all started in high school with the demand for greater “relevance†in curricula during the sixties. ”
It was actually the parents of Baby Boomers who were running the schools in the 60’s.
I’ve never understood the bitter hatred this sort of thread brings out. There’s plenty not to like about the way the Boomers lived in adulthood, of course, but they were raised by “the Greatest Generation,” who were presumably doing the best they could, given the insights of the authorities of their day. Now, you all can take the insights of today’s authorities, fix everything, and move on, confident your children will never speak ill of your generation.