I. The Rational Child
A. Description
Rationals are "logical, dialectical, phlegmatic, curious, skeptical, theoretical, calm, marketing, and tough minded" 1. When teaching a rational child one can easily become confused by their apparent "erratic" behavior. The rational child, like the adult counterpart, has a deep desire to master and understand concepts. They aim to please more than anything, but their hidden emotions might not always show this deep yearning they feel.2 While the child will come across as calm, inside they are constantly feeling with thoughts of inadequacy. The rational child is deeply afraid of failure and is often tortured by a vivid and negative imagination where they constantly imagine every possible negative outcome 3. They will punish themselves for failure more than any adult ever could and that's why it is important to be very careful with any forms of criticism that might be construed as too harsh because they may resign themselves to failure and give up on an activity entirely. The same is true if the child perceives that they are not learning fast enough themselves, even if nothing of the sort has been suggested. All of these conflicts will only be felt internally within the child though, which is why their behavior may seem erratic. For example, a child could be a top pupil, but on a spelling test miss one word. The teacher thinks nothing of this, it’s a small mistake and the child always excels anyways. But the child may become so aggravated by this mistake and beat themselves up so much over it that they decide to give up completely on spelling.
When dealing with a rational child, their strong preference for logic will ensure they are predominantly a left brained thinker. By appealing to their logical side and focusing on completing tasks in an orderly manner that follows an easy to follow step by step process, you will ensure they grasp the information in a way that appeals to them. The rational child craves autonomy and they often begin exhibiting signs of a desire for self-reliance as early as two 4. They will deeply resent any perceived threats to their autonomy and will be very bothered if they feel reliant in any way on another person. This is why solid tasks and reachable goals are important when instructing the rational child. Unlike the idealist child, who would prefer a more flowing and varied learning style, rationals need to feel accomplished and need real and tangible examples of those accomplishments.
The rational child is obsessed with understanding how things work; they are the type of child who appears to have an endless amount of "why"? questions 5. When teaching these children use this desire for understanding and control of their situation to their advantage by setting them one task at a time. Whereas some children learn best when moving back and forth from various topics, the rational child will become obsessed with understanding one idea and will feel a need to understand it before moving on to a new topic. Let them experiment as much as possible as well, for example, if they want to know why a piece has the marking pianissimo and they ask why it isn't forte, have them try the pieces in varying dynamic levels. Let them try it in different octave ranges, have them transpose the piece. Any act that will help them feel they understand the piece better will engage their inquisitive nature and make them more excited to learn.
B. Examples
Currently in my studio I have one child who is exhibiting strong rational tendencies. He began with me when he was 4 and is currently six. Let's call him Alex for the sake of this entry. Alex is very bright, very shy, and fiercely independent. I believe he is of the Mastermind profile as exhibited by his voracious thirst for knowledge and desire for strict autonomy. Teaching a child of the same personality type as myself has been a very unique experience. I feel that with Alex, more then any other student we understand each other more. I choose to experiment with him most using different methods because of his resilient nature and desire to master tasks. Alex is perfectionist, a characteristic we share, and like many rational children if he doesn't completely master a task on the first try he is prone to thoughts of failure and tends to give up. Because of this, I am extremely careful in my critical remarks. I generally do not believe in negative reinforcement, but with rational children I have to be careful to word everything in a manner that won't cause the child to feel like they failed. Simply saying "Let's try that again" could be construed as a negative remark so a teacher must first tell the child what they liked about their attempt at a task.
The rational child learns best through direct methods and has a deep desire to understand why they are doing each task. It is important you let them infer their own reasons for doing each task for by giving them your own explanation, they will feel disconnected from the task and consider themselves "dumb" for not seeing the value in it from the beginning. The extreme autonomous nature of the rational child can make them difficult to teach since they desire to do everything themselves. To teach Alex, I have to employ mainly discovery kinesthetic learning, since this gives himt eh greatest sense of control. Children love manipulating their environment, and the rational child loves it more then most. For example,one of Alex's favorite activities includes inflatable dinosaurs that he uses to march out rhythms.
In general it is important that activities are structured and include attainable goals so the child does not become despondent. I cannot stress enough the importance of reachable goals, for the rational child really will become so self loathing in their inability to reach a goal in in what they deem an appropriate amount of time, so they will simply give up all together. I give Alex tasks that I know are too easy for him, things he can accomplish very fast. This boosts his confidence and helps get him through his harder work. If your rational student all of a sudden appears to have lost interest or desire, it is important to not get upset but instead assign them a quick task(such as coloring or flash cards) that you know they can accomplish quickly to give them a quick confidence boost. While some might see this as wasting precious lesson/practice time, it is surely preferable to spend a little time on confidence boosting then to have the child quit forever.
Use the rational child's desire for autonomy to their advantage. They will often say things such as "No! Let me do it! I can do it! Me do it!" ect. So let them! Let them try and figure it out first to discover as much as they can, then offer your guidance. The independent nature of the child can also be used to help them practice and accomplish their work. Make sure they understand its "their" job. The rational child can't stand being reliant on anyone else and this idea will greatly appeal to them. In fact the rational child can't stand being reliant so much, that they almost don't understand the need for teachers. They are so insecure, that they seem to believe they can learn everything on their own and if they can't, it must mean they are "stupid". I see this all the time with Alex and its why my teaching personality for him is more of an observant cheerleader who will gently correct any mistakes from the sidelines.
Next post we will explore the Guardian child and an example of from my own studio along with suggestions on teaching for this type!
1 Keirsey, D. (1998). Please Understand Me II. (First ed., p 253. ). Del Mar: Prometheus Nemesis Book Company.
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