thoughts on: Quiet: The Power of Introverts

Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain

As an introvert, it's not surprising that I would like Quiet, but I'd encourage extraverts to read it as well. Susan Cain devotes the first portion of her book to looking at how we, America, changed from a culture of character to a culture of personality. She then continues to approach the topic from a cultural perspective. Looking at the subject through this lens broadens our understanding of how our cultural bias affects all of us.

Quiet is not a self-help book for understanding introverts or thriving as one. It does point out ways that our schools, businesses, and society at large are impacted when society strongly favors extraverts, a bias that is not supported by research.

I would like to think that awareness alone would prompt change, especially change away from group-learning theories in our schools, but I suspect it will be as effective as the years of evidence that self esteem does not improve either the learning or the behavior of our students.