Respectfully, you have no idea what you're talking about with regard to my personal situations and what has transpired in my workplaces, so suggesting I am to blame for what happened to me because of the arrogance you perceive me to possess is totally uncalled for. It's also highly patronising to suggest I need to read my post back and reflect on it. I think you might want to check that desire to patronise, as it's not a great trait in a Head of Department, FYI.
Of course I don't walk around work thinking I'm the dog's bollocks and lording it over everyone. I didn't say anywhere in my post that I think I'm better than everyone else - you've decided to read that into what I wrote. I'm a collaborative, helpful and supportive colleague who has plenty of friends in my current school and loads of friends I'm still in touch with from previous schools. I really value my colleagues and love learning from them, and I know they value me, because they tell me so. We have a fantastic relationship and I'm really lucky to work with such fabulous people.
I have been bullied by Headteachers who have been threatened by me because they have assumed I am after their jobs due to my capabilities. I have no interest in being a Headteacher. But I am outspoken in defending the interests of my team and my students, and I ask difficult questions. I have been unfortunate to work in schools where the Headteachers have not been very experienced, competent or well qualified, and rather than seek to learn from their staff with more of those qualities than them, they sought to stamp them down. I was not the only victim of their ire. Up until my current job, I was always a Head of a core faculty, which put me in the firing line - because I refused to make my team carry out the directives from above that I knew were not based on sound pedagogy or student wellbeing, but merely to tick boxes, which would have put huge pressure on my team - already at breaking point - and added further stress to our students, who really didn't need more assessments and more feedback and more hoops to jump through to measure their achievement. When I challenged the rationale for decisions management couldn't justify, because the only reason they were doing these things was to be seen to be doing something, they made me persona non grata. I have always stood up for my team and my students. It's literally a Head of Department's job to do that. I'm not going to sit in a meeting and accept someone asking me to make my team do things I know are actively harmful to them and the young people we teach when there is literally no justifiable, intelligent, reasoned decision for doing so other than ticking imaginary 'but Ofsted might want to see...' boxes. You are fortunate if you haven't worked in a school with incompetent idiots as managers, but many of us in this profession sadly do, especially if you've the misfortune to end up in an academy chain.
The reality is, I am intelligent (Oxbridge degree, two MAs and half way to a PhD, if you need proof), I am very good at my job (my relationships with my students and the progress they make are evidence of this), and I am really passionate about what I do. I shouldn't have to put myself down in order to please and placate other people. A man wouldn't have any qualms in stating his professional competence, so I don't see why I should have to. I am clever, I am well qualified, and I am good at my job. I'm not going to pretend otherwise. It's ok to be proud of what you have achieved in life, you know.
I suggest you work on your own confidence rather than trying to drag other people down. Your post says a lot more about you and how you feel about yourself than it does about me.