ABSTRACT
Great teachers develop their authentic confidence like Picasso honed his art: steadily, with deliberate practice, perseverance and passion. There is no perfect teacher, nor the perfect degree of confidence: the classroom is much too complicated for that. They must then face up to the complexity of our varying degrees of confidence. Established routines were executed almost imperceptibly. Books, paper, homework and pens were all arranged in a subtle sweep. Honed and near-hidden routines, no doubt established with effort, funnelled students quickly to the task at hand. There is a fine balance. It is the 'Goldilocks principle of confidence'. They need to avoid possessing too little confidence, as that can prove debilitating and self-defeating, but they can't have too much self-confidence either, as arrogance is too often a springboard to stupidity. They need just the right degree of authentic confidence.
