The Introvert

Hi, I’m the introvert in your classroom. The quiet student who will scarcely raise her hand, if at all, and may give the impression of dislike to strangers. The truth is, I don’t dislike my teacher, and I don’t dislike my fellow students—I just rarely initiate conversation.

I am the student who will probably concern her teachers and launch a series of “We’d love to hear more from ____ in class” to her parents. In fact, after eleven years in education, I’m curious as to how many times they have heard that phrase word for word or seen it on my report card. The reason they’re so concerned, however, is because they’re expecting an extrovert out of an introvert. Considering the many misunderstandings of what introverts actually are, including widely trusted dictionaries, as well as the fact that schools are essentially built for extroverts, no one can really be blamed. They can, however, be educated. According to the Oxford College Dictionary, one definition is “a person’s or animal’s nature, esp. as it permanently affects their behavior”. In other words, temperament is not an aspect of someone’s personality that can be changed. Introvertedness, extrovertedness, and ambivertedness are all examples of temperament. Encyclopedia Britannica states “an introvert is a person whose interest is generally directed inward toward his own feelings and thoughts, in contrast to...other people and the outside world”. The Myers & Briggs Foundation offers the following explanation: “I like getting my energy from dealing with the ideas, pictures, memories, and reactions that are...in my inner world. I often prefer doing things alone or with one or two people I feel comfortable with. I take time to reflect so that I have a clear idea of what I'll be doing when I decide to act. Ideas are almost solid things for me.”  A crucial point to understanding introvertedness is that it is not, in fact, synonymous to shyness. Though they may resemble each other, introvertedness is related to social stimulus, not social fear. I suppose, considering the Oxford College Dictionary also defines introverts as “a shy reticent person”, it is understandable why so few people are able to understand what being introverted really means.

In short, extroverts are stimulated by social interaction, whereas introverts are stimulated more so by themselves by their internal thoughts, needing to “recharge” with some alone time. Social interaction tires introverts out, whereas it excites extroverts. While I fully understand the need to participate and share my ideas, I can’t agree with forms of testing our knowledge such as socratic seminars. Socratic seminars are a great way to get extroverts involved with material and communicate their knowledge, however, as an introvert, it feels like going against every natural instinct and is exhausting. One could say that contrastingly, writing a paper might feel the same way for an extrovert, which is absolutely true. I see how this is a difficult issue to tackle, considering there are ways schools generalize education to the misfortune of both extroverts and introverts. The bottom line, however, is that introverts spend seven hours a day surrounded by people and spend most of the time talking. It’s not that we dislike talking, however, compared to our fellow extroverts, that is seven hours of draining our energy compared to seven hours of feeling stimulated. Tacking on constant class discussions with pressure to participate while introverts are basically hard-wired to function more so inside our head than outside is difficult to handle.

It’s important to note that I am not entirely against group discussions. I feel incredibly uncomfortable in whole-class discussions because while extroverts tend to communicate their thoughts best externally, since introverts are more “inside their heads” it may take longer to put our ideas into words, especially considering the timed nature of the discussions. However, if placed in a group of people I am comfortable with, or even just a smaller group, one will probably notice I can become incredibly engaged. This would be because I am just not built to communicate with large groups of people, which is both draining and not an accurate measure of what I have learned as I will struggle to get a word into a free-flowing conversation and often end up watering down what has already been said in a desperate effort to participate, because my grade relies on it. On a similar note, the favorite topic of many, is cold calling. While, frankly, I don’t think that cold calling is an accurate measure of learning for anyone, as an introvert it’s especially stressful since my thoughts don’t tend to translate into a proper sentence in time, even if I know that material.

While tackling this issue is difficult because we can’t necessarily upend the entire public school system, it should at least be addressed by individual educators, especially since introverts are essentially told to upend their entire personality. I have only ever had one teacher in my entire education actually tell their class that they don’t believe in telling parents that “so and so should speak up more” because introverts simply don’t function that way. On the contrary, I’ve had many teachers tell me that other students should get to hear my wonderful ideas, which doesn’t really motivate me to participate and instead just causes self-blame as I’m essentially told, “Be an extrovert, and you’ll do better”. Again, getting a student’s ideas to be heard isn’t limited to speaking out to a group of people. Small groups are a great way to get different kinds of students involved. Additionally, just because I don’t say my ideas out loud doesn’t mean there aren’t other ways to get them to hear them.

In an education system based mostly on social interaction and participation, introverts can struggle to reach the expectations of their peers and educators. However, there are numerous steps both individuals and schools can take to help integrate every type of student properly, which can only start by getting to know the different types of students.

by ANONYMOUS