Do You Have a Quiet Kid?
A thoughtful article in Crosscut about children who are introverts and the "Quiet Revolution." Recently, my fourteen-year-old daughter Melanie came home dejected from a volunteer activity. “I was criticized for not sharing enough of my ideas,” she told me. “The problem is that I like to listen. By the time I’m ready to share, everybody else is busy talking and I can’t get a word in edgewise.” To reassure Melanie, we watched a TED Talk given by Susan Cain, author of the 2012 best-selling book "Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking." This record-breaking speech has been viewed over four million times. Bill Gates says it’s one of his favorites. What does this look like at school? A key distinction between the two is how they respond to stimulation: Introverts prefer quieter, less stimulating environments, preferring to concentrate in solitude, spend more time problem-solving and think before they speak. In contras...