.png)
This week we're reading Chapter 8 which is about personality and learning styles. In all my years of schooling and working in the church world, I've taken plenty of personality tests. I very much appreciate how the Clarksons boiled the classifications down to essentials and used accessible language.
We are first and foremost persons, eternally stamped with the image and likeness of our Creator. pg 148
We must remember that personality types and learning styles are not addressed in scripture. These are classifications based on human observation. We can see personality traits of characters in the Bible, but we cannot get hung up on those being biblical mandates. They are not.
Part of your role as a parent is to understand, encourage, and direct the emerging personality development of each individual child. pg 149
There are so many theories of personality and learning. The WholeHearted Model is broken into modes of thinking, mental focus, and life orientation which are combined with a learning style. Josh and I discussed our personal styles as I was reading this chapter and tried to determine where we think Jonathan leans at this time.
I'm very much an Active-Facts-Values-Time Helper, though I have some strong Doer traits as well. Josh on the other hand is very much my opposite. He's a Reflective-Insight-Logic-Shaper. In our discussion, we found that so far, Jonathan seems to be very much like me. He's still very young and we may find that as more of his personality and learning styles are revealed, he is different from what we think right now. It could also be that he spends a lot of time with me and my traits and preferences are more easily drawn out of him and encouraged.
Are you thoroughly confused? This chapter has a great survey to help you think about your child and figure out what categories best describe them. There are also wonderful descriptions of each type and sub-type variation. This chapter is going to be a great resources for us through the years as our boys grow.
Knowing that Jonathan seems to be a lot like me brings up two issues for us. One, it makes it easy for me to teach him because I can use my preferred styles. On the other hand, I must be careful to not limit him at this early age and give him opportunities to learn and discover his world using other styles. This is another great way in our family to include Dad. Being that Josh has all of the opposite traits, he can give a different perspective or experience with a subject or activity very easily.
What is your personality type and learning style? What about your children? How do you incorporate this knowledge into the way that you teach your children?
