Originally Posted by MeganI am well pleased Maize that you see the potential problems I see. Knowing the potential dangers, I cannot offer you any encouragement to continue what you are doing.Good questions. I see better your fears and the potential problems that you see ensuing.
Maybe you are the INFj I think you are and Joy is the ESTj you think she is :wink: .I'm pretty shocked at how well Joy understood the purpose of my praise towards the little boy.
Why is it that as a teacher you are [potentially] reacting in a crappy manner to your students' behaviours that you do not understand or like?And understood how crappy I might have reacted to him had I not known about socionics. Pretty cool. Like Joy said, had I not known about socionics...I'm not so sure I would have been quick to acknowledge the little boy for making the pattern. I might have thought he was PLAYING with the bears and wasting precious time instead of practicing his addition problems and accomplishing the task at hand (MY value).
Is there some sort of alternative reaction that might be more appropriate in dealing with small children and your own emotional reaction to their deviances?
I can understand if you lose your temper occasionally as it is human to do so but I think that in your position, negative emotionality and reactivity must be put aside to reason, patience and personal self control while you are with the children regardless of how hard that is and whether you understand them and their behaviours or not.
You seem to need socionics at least to some extent to tell you that children do not follow the rules and timelines adults set for them and how a patient and understanding teacher can appreciate this quality in a student and manage it to a child's advantage.
Also, you cannot really say with much authority that and being ENTp was the reason the child was exploring alternative activities than the one you wanted him to. He could just not have been interested in what you were teaching at the time and you needed to see this and find an alternative way to engage his attention.
Well if socionics was what you needed to tell you that ENTps and indeed all people, including those of the same socionics type as yourself, engage the world in a different way from you, then socionics has probably down one good thing for you.However, because I knew about socionics, I sensed he would get bored quickly with the 10 problem worksheet and tune out. When I saw that he had engaged the bears and was making a pattern, I felt that would be a good opportunity to encourage his creativity. It wasn't until I came on this forum that I actually had a better sense of how totally different the ENTp and I engage the world.
Do you think that apart from the children you consciously try to type that you may also be sub-consciously typing the others as well?I mean, the kids that flow with my style and learn from my lessons are easy and it all comes naturally. I'm a big ole goofball and they laugh and love it and engage my lessons. I only consciously conjure up/imagine types for the kids, like that little boy, who continuously take their attention away from the goal at hand and/or lesson I'm implementing. Those that do not naturally flow with my values are the ones that I imagine benefit from me wanting to incorporate their values.
Since most of us have learnt about socionics/MBTI or whatever typing system we seem to type everyone we meet and know almost unconsciously.
Getting dictator-like with young children is indeed a bad idea. Did you really need socionics in mind to tell you that?Without socionics in mind, I get all dictator-like in the classroom. That's what I'm more worried about actually.
I suggest that you should also be worried about whether you can or have typed these children correctly. Maybe you are applying an ISFj programme to an ENTp child. You really do not know that you haven't done this for certain. Think of the negative consequences of incorrect typing. When we sit on this forum trying to type ourselves and our friends and family, that is one issue, but when we seek to type other peoples' vulnerable children and apply progammes and engagement with them based on that when so much in unknown about the theory and correctly typing people is so difficult well I have to wonder if you are doing these children a great service. You might also want to consider whether upon typing them correctly if the benefits of knowing their type outweigh the negative possibilities of you knowing their type. I think caring for children is a very big and risky job and I know it is difficult and you are trying to do the best you can, however too much is unknown about socionics to be applying it to impressionable young children when there are other perhaps better tested techniques available to aid you in the understanding of each individual child regardless of their type.