If a teacher could not identify shapes, colors, letters, or numerals, would you want them to be the adult guiding and supporting young children learning these skills? Of course not! Do you apply that same expectation of competence to a teacher’s social and emotional capacities? If a teacher cannot trust others, can they support an infant’s developing trust? If they cannot disagree with coworkers without defensiveness or manipulation, can they help a toddler develop strategies for respectful conflict? Will a teacher with a negative, defeatist attitude toward life foster a 3-year-old’s creativity, imagination, and dreams of possibility?