Trego's Mountain Ear

From the Daily Wire ( Tim Walz’s Misleading Claims About Winning Teaching Awards ) comes this statement:

“Walz’s 2018 campaign website reportedly claimed he won the 2003 Minnesota Teacher of Excellence award, according to On The Issues, which cites the website. The website no longer exists, and instead redirects visitors to Vice President Kamala Harris’ main campaign website.

But Walz was never selected as a Minnesota Teacher of the Year recipient. A  website for the award includes a list of past nominees – and Walz’s name does not appear.”

I’m not about to chime in on Walz’s military record – heck, Rodger Young was National Guard, and that’s enough to keep me from slamming anyone in the Guard.  On the other hand, claiming a teaching award that I didn’t receive isn’t something I would take pride in. 

Still, I think it might be part of the narcissism that it takes to run for high public office.  I’ve received some minor accolades for teaching that I could have inflated over the years – except I generally worked with better teachers than I.  Colleagues like Connie Malyevac at Libby, and Bob Mendelsohn and Ron Stiver at SDSU tend to keep me a little humble.  Belay that – I’ve worked with teachers whose memories keep me a lot humble.

But they identified a new type of narcissist since I got my Masters – The Communal Narcissist: A New Kind of Narcissist? | Psychology Today describes them:

In a 2012 paper, Gebauer and colleagues proposed an agency-communion model, arguing that there are two types of narcissists: agentic narcissists (i.e. typical narcissists) and communal narcissists.³

The authors were not suggesting that some narcissists are highly cooperative and trustworthy. No, communal narcissists have grandiose self-related needs too. However, the authors proposed that communal narcissists differ from agentic ones in that they use communal means to meet those same grandiose needs.

To illustrate this difference, let us use an example to see how these two types of narcissists justify their sense of entitlement.

Imagine the case of a man who always expects his friends’ gatherings planned according to his availability and preferences—even though he rarely stays long and sometimes does not attend at all.

If he is an agentic narcissist (i.e. typical narcissist), he might justify the current state of affairs by saying “I deserve special treatment because I am exceptionally smart. I am an expert on almost any topic of conversation.”

A communal narcissist, however, may reason this way: “I deserve special treatment because I am extraordinarily warmhearted, trustworthy, and helpful; everyone feels at ease telling me all their problems.”

Looking at the description – the article includes much more – makes me wonder if this sort of narcissism isn’t more common in educators and politicians than the humdrum standard, run of the mill, everyday narcissist.  The communal narcissism inventory Narcissism (16-item version)  gives a choice between two paired statements to determine the level of narcissism.  You can read through the pairs, and I won’t have to help describe which is which:

– When people compliment me I sometimes get embarrassed
– I know that I am good because everybody keeps telling me so

 – I prefer to blend in with the crowd
– I like to be the center of attention

– I am no better or worse than most people
– I think I am a special person

 – I don’t mind following orders
– I like having authority over people

– I don’t like it when I find myself manipulating people
– I find it easy to manipulate people

 – I usually get the respect that I deserve
– I insist upon getting the respect that is due me

– I try not to be a show off
– I am apt to show off if I get the chance

 – Sometimes I am not sure of what I am doing
– I always know what I am doing

– Sometimes I tell good stories
– Everybody likes to hear my stories

 – I like to do things for other people
 – I expect a great deal from other people

– It makes me uncomfortable to be the center of attention
– I really like to be the center of attention

 – Being an authority doesn’t mean that much to me
– People always seem to recognize my authority

– I hope I am going to be successful
– I am going to be a great person

 – People sometimes believe what I tell them
– I can make anybody believe anything I want them to

– There is a lot that I can learn from other people
– I am more capable than other people

 – I am much like everybody else
– I am an extraordinary person

I’ve been a good teacher – but I’ve worked with great teachers.  Makes it hard to inflate the small awards I have received.  I would prefer to know that Tim Walz hadn’t inflated his awards . . . but it may just be part of the personality that you need to have if you’re willing to run for president or vice-president.