a different kind of normal

[bironic]

"Introverts of the World, Unite!" -- an Atlantic Monthly interview with Jonathan Rauch, revisiting his infamous "Caring for your Introvert" article from 2003. It's from February but I only found out about it today (thanks, Steve!).

Comments

Re: Hoping this works...

[catilinarian.livejournal.com]

I tried to talk with my professor about it but he wasn't in the least sympathetic. If only I'd had Rauch's work on hand to understand what was going on and arm myself with the vocabulary to challenge my professor's methods at that office hours visit. (I still imagine from time to time how that talk would have gone, and think he would have countered with the argument that journalists need that sort of trait to survive in the profession.)

Yeah, I have to admit, I'm conflicted about that. I hate being called on out of the blue - and my being at a loss for words, like yours, isn't an indicator that I haven't been paying attention or don't understand, which a lot of teachers haven't realised. And I can't believe you were graded on your ability to insert your own opinions into a complete free-for-all discussion; that's incredibly unfair! That just seems to reward noise and aggression over ideas, eloquence, or even persuasiveness. It's like telling you your paper can only be graded once you've pushed your way through a line of yelling, shoving varsity athletes to hand it in.

But in a broader sense, do you think that it's ever a teacher's duty to train introverts to behave more like extroverts, if they know their students will be heading out into an extrovert-friendly world (and particularly an extrovert-friendly profession)? It seems kind of unfair either way: on the one hand, if you make participation mandatory and part of the grade, you're judging your students based on something that's not strictly an academic skill (because you're not judging them on their ability to articulate their ideas, the way an oral exam, a presentation, or a formal debate would; you're judging them on their ability to articulate those ideas quickly and aggressively in a social setting). On the other hand, if you don't force the introverts in your class to participate in more extroverted way, you risk leaving them unprepared if that kind of participation will be expected of them later (and it probably will). I still hate class discussion, especially free-for-all. It's never going to feel natural for me. But I might not be able to do it competently at all if several bastards of teachers hadn't made it a large percentage of my grade. :)

Incidentally, a friend of mine who was in a management program at school once told me that they were being trained to wait a certain number of seconds (down to an equation!) at a meeting after asking a question and before moving on so the introverts present would have sufficient chance to respond.

See, THAT makes a lot of sense, particularly as the company wants to get its money's worth out of the bright introverts it hired, so it's in the company's best interest to make sure those people are able to contribute.

Re: Hoping this works...

[bironic.livejournal.com]

There is something to be said for career training in class, especially in vocational studies like journalism (as opposed to the liberal arts, where if you're trained for anything it's for staying in academics). I have considered this, and nevertheless I've come up with a few rebuttals: (1) this class was about Media Law & Ethics, not extroversion training, for which they could have forged a separate course for journalism majors teaching them how to be effective at press conferences, on interviews, in crowds and so forth; (2) there was a structured debate once for which we had to prepare, also for a grade (and I don't want to get into what he did to me on that one); (3) not every professor taught the course like mine did, nor was there a note of the differing teaching methods in a section description; and -- here's the kicker -- (4) by the time we graduated, the course was changed from small discussion sections to one large lecture-style class.

Re: Hoping this works...

[bironic.livejournal.com]

Oh, and (5) -- I don't think he realized what he was doing. That is, I don't think he encouraged structured and unstructured debate as a deliberate attempt to flush out and "toughen" the students he saw as shy and weak; I think he took it for granted that all students are ideally situated to participate in discussions like that, and those who hold back, who need time to digest information and prepare responses, are weaker and need correction, with low grades as the only motivation.

Re: Hoping this works...

[catilinarian.livejournal.com]

Hmmmmm... my only quibble would be with your first point, because you could equally say that essays in, for example, a history class should not lose points for style and grammar, as it's a course in history and not in English. But the fact that the course layout and style differed so much between professors and over time makes that amount of emphasis on discussion unfair, and the inclusion of a formal debate should be enough to strengthen students' articulation skills. And the fact that the professor didn't realise that that kind of atmosphere would be extremely difficult for some is a major failing on his part as a teacher.