Introverts and School

This week’s article summary from the Harvard Magazine is Quiet, Please: Susan Cain Foments the Quiet Revolution.

Susan Cain’s book Quiet was published in 2013 and it remains popular and influential. In fact, NAIS recently used it for its national book club.

If you’re an introvert like me, Cain’s work has helped explain the habits and preferences of introverts and has provided teachers ideas to support quiet students in the classroom (see the list of suggestions for teachers below).

Particularly if you are an extrovert, look over the list below of common characteristics of introverts.

My mom is an extreme extrovert—if she’s not around people, she gets antsy. My dad is an extreme introvert—alone on a desert island with only a few books for company is his ideal.

They’ve been married for 60 years and over that time they have adapted to each other’s needs and preferences. 

Daily my parents’ house is an revolving door of visitors—neighbors for coffee in the morning and Happy Hour in the late afternoon, kids for cookies or a swim in the pool, dogs for biscuits and treats. And through it all, my mom holds court. 

My dad, however, is typically upstairs in the spare bedroom with the door closed, reading, reading, reading. (Now that he’s retired, he is finally able to get to all the books that piled up through the years.)

Despite their differences, I've never heard them complain about each other or how one is cramping the style of the other. 

Sure, sometimes I see my mom quietly reading a book or my dad regaling a neighbor with a story or a recap of a ball game, yet they are an example of how introversion and extroversion can complement each other.

I’m glad this has trickled down to the clasroom too—where we support the needs of our quiet kids—who like (and need) to be alone sometimes (including lunch and recess), who need to internally process before speaking, and who are fine working independently.

Here’s also a 3-minute YouTube clip from Cain on educating introverts

Joe

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Susan Cain is the “fairy godmother of introverts” and author of the best-selling book, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking. 

According to Cain, between one-third and one-half of people are introverts, yet classrooms and workplaces tend to favor extroverts.

“Today we make room for a remarkably narrow range of personality styles,” she says. “We’re told that to be great is to be bold, to be happy is to be sociable. We see ourselves as a nation of extroverts – which means that we’ve lost sight of who we really are.”

Cain’s working definition of the introverted temperament draws on the work of Carl Jung, Jerome Kagan, and other psychologists: 

• Introverts look inward to a world of thoughts and feelings
• Need solitude to recharge their batteries
• Are empathetic and reflective
• Prefer listening to talking
• Think before they speak
• Tend to make peace and offer counsel
• Have strong powers of concentration
• Are mostly immune to the lures of wealth and fame
• Tend to be artistic and creative, especially when they work alone.

Some notable introverts: Charles Darwin, Dr. Seuss, Rosa Parks, Albert Einstein, Steve Wozniak, Steven Spielberg, J.K. Rowling.

Cain has set up a for-profit organization titled Quiet Revolution that trains students, teachers, and others to understand the extrovert-introvert spectrum and make changes that allow everyone to contribute.

Some of the areas her organization is working on:

• Fostering clarity, communication, and understanding among classmates and co-workers along the introvert-extrovert spectrum
• Encouraging individual as well as team projects
• Giving team members advance notice of meeting agendas
• Creating “corners for solitude and silence” including places in schools for a quiet lunch
• Not basing class participation grades on the quantity of words uttered
• Giving quiet but attentive students a way of signaling to the teacher that they’re with it
• At the same time, giving quiet students a “gentle push” to speak up (one precept: if you have something to say, say it early in the class so you can then relax and listen)
• Subtle techniques like saying toward the end of a class or meeting, “In a minute, I will say, ‘Does anyone have any other thoughts or questions or ideas?’ – I will say that in a minute.” This gives the introverts time to reflect and get ready to participate.

In a classroom or workplace that’s sensitive to extrovert-introvert characteristics, Cain believes there’s a sense of self-awareness, trust, and safety from which everyone benefits: “Oh, that’s who I am; I make decisions more quickly” or “I multitask more easily” or “That’s why I’m quiet” or “I’m not less than the kid next to me who’s raising his hand all the time.”

Classroom discussions are where teachers need to be particularly aware of the tendency for extroverts to dominate and get more value from the class than others. “They’re raising their hands first, and the teacher is calling on them,” says Cain. “That’s the root of the problem. The extroverts are used to being called on – for years teachers have called on them, and they expect it. But research shows that as soon as a hand goes up, the other brains in the room shut down.”