Teacher Thoughts on Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking Part 3

I am in the process of reading Quiet:The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking. Instead of going off on one big rant I am breaking my thoughts, questions, concerns up into smaller bite size bits of wisdom.

You can check out the earlier thoughts over in the sidebar of the blog.

I shared this image on Instagram the other day, but I did not take time to talk about it.

This passage has me stuck in neutrel. I keep coming back to this sentence and reading it over and over. This really speaks volumes. Here we have Stanford Business School showing that they really think that verbal fluency(speaking) and sociability are the top two predictors. Is this the case? What do you think?

I don’t know. I guess I never gave pause before to really think about what is needed to be successful specifically. As a teacher we strive on the notion that students need to work and develop the tools needed to work in groups with people who differ from you in all types of levels from intelligence, gender, race, quiet, loud, etc. The key in school is to get them working with people who are not part of their circle of friends. I know we all have said at one point or the other when issues arrive at the table that students need to learn to work through it as in the real world. But, I don’t know that we specifically teach verbal fluency and sociability.

Should we?

In our school we have speech class and students give presentations and such, but I don’t know that we teach specifics of verbal fluency. Sociability is one that I am not quite sure you can teach.

Or perhaps I am overthinking this completely because another part of me believes that times have changed. You might not be the best verbal speaker and maybe lack social skills, but with technology and being able to hide behind a computer screen(like I am doing right now) we can come out of our shells while still being introverts. We can do things needed to be successful while not really needing these skills. Is this an old way of thinking? Is it an old way of thinking that just looks different today and we can now make ends meet through technology?

I told you my brain was spinning and I am only to page 48!