The Teacher
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ENFJ |
|
Extroverted |
Intuitive |
Feeling |
Judging |
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Strength of the preferences % |
|||
|
78 |
38 |
75 |
22 |
The answer to your question is not always an easy one to answer, Professor Bump. I consider myself many things. A writer is one of those things, of course, but I believe that the description Keirsey gives of my ENFJ personality of a “teacher” is incredibly appropriate. Throughout my life, I have taken on the role of a teacher frequently, if not constantly. My summer job as a resident camp counselor was perhaps an exaggerated example. It was clearly helpful to be an extrovert, as you were never alone. We were called upon to talk to parents, to children of all ages and races, and to our coworkers pretty much 24 hours each day. It was also a tremendous help to be the “Feeling” type, especially when little kids were hurt or upset. To be able to sympathize with anyone, even children, is a truly wonderful gift to me. My test results show that my personality is dominated by the traits of extroversion and feeling, which basically add up to mean that I love interacting with people, especially if I can help them in any way.
This applies to my learning and writing styles in many ways. In my classes, it is true that I prefer active exercise to long lectures. If there is no way to become involved by discussing or answering questions, lectures often put me right to sleep. I also thrive in group environments, usually assuming the leadership position. The feeling side of my personality is also very apparent in my learning style – I am “relationship oriented,” as my results say, meaning that study groups have been an important part of the learning process for me. I had a reliable group of friends I met with before just about every test the last two years of high school. It was a great way to have a support net to fall back on if I didn’t understand something, and also to be able to teach my friends the things I understood. I now realize that’s an important part of my educational self, the need to forge connections with peers so that we can support each other through any difficulties.
The article on the learning styles of “feeling” people also states that we like to be close to our teachers and view them as friends. This is definitely true. The most meaningful and educational classes throughout high school were the ones in which I was actually friends with my teachers. I saw two of my three English teachers outside of the classroom, even. It made the class more relaxed so that we could truly discuss literature and address our curriculum. I also had an incredibly close relationship as a class with one of my summer studies professors as well as my AP Chemistry and Biology teachers. Being close to my teachers is an important part of feeling comfortable in the classroom to me as well. Upon reflection, I can see that forming strong relationships might be the most important key to making me feel comfortable, inside the classroom and out.
Up until this point, my writing classes have trained me to write complete papers with little to no planning in about 40 minutes. This has been to prepare us for the AP test, which I admittedly did well on. However, I haven’t had much experience in writing a formal paper with revisions or outlines. Our article states that “[e]xtroverts will think better when writing quickly, impulsively, and uncritically.” This is true. As far as I can tell, I’m fairly skilled at coolly throwing down a three to four page paper at the drop of a hat that manages to explore the subject with some depth and meaning. Because I am used to writing quickly, I have learned to get a general idea of the points I want to talk about, and discover what I will say about them I as write about them. In this regard, my analysis is also accurate. My writing process is very organic, generating ideas “quickly, almost unconsciously,” and “letting one idea trigger another.” This sometimes leads to a paper that doesn’t flow as well as if I had gone back to edit. My writing does tend to include “a deep personal conviction.” My policy has always been that if the prompt doesn’t automatically awaken a strong feeling, to make one up and write as if it did. That might be the extroverted show person coming out in my writing, putting on a show for the audience of my writing. Being a theatre person, I like to give the people what they want!
Interestingly enough, I took this quiz earlier this year, on January tenth. I went back in my blog to find my results, and they were almost the same – ENFP. Because my results today suggested I was only “slightly” judging and my results then suggested I was only 33% perceiving, I’d guess that aspect of my character doesn’t quite fit into one mold or the other. Really, that pleases me. There’s something about being locked into a mathematical formula of a personality that makes me uncomfortable. I’d like to reserve the right to be both P and J! Since the strength of my E and F is so high, and the N and J are so low, I think that the N and J descriptions aren’t totally accurate. It’s true that I have some of the traits listed for those two categories, but I also have traits in the opposite vein. Altogether, though, the important parts of my analysis were extremely accurate. In the end, this exercise was enlightening as to my teaching and learning styles (as well as my romantic style), though I’m not entirely sure if this tells an outsider who I am. I suppose that is something that will only come with meeting me. Luckily, I love people!