College Readiness for Type B Personalities

Two San Francisco cardiologists, Ray Rosenman and Meyer Friedman, were talking to the man reupholstering the furniture in their waiting room.  He remarked that he had never seen the fronts of chairs worn away.  Usually, it is the back of the seat that has wear, but in this waiting room, the fronts of the armrests and the seat were frayed.

Friedman quickly realized it was the answer to a mystery that had confounded him for his whole career: why were heart attacks increasing?  A good number of his patients were high stress, angry, impatient, competitive types that thrived in the growing postwar economy (and gripped the fronts of their chairs).  He named them "Type A" and the term, along with its opposite, "Type B" entered popular culture rapidly.

Most self-help and success literature seems aimed at the Type A market: how to cope with stress, how to fit even more projects in your day, and how to get even more energy.  How to maximize this and minimize that. College readiness materials are similar: they often have a "get your reach school or die" vibe to them.

But there are a lot of talented Type B kids that do not buy into the whole college rat race.  Often, in the future, they make gifted leaders, as they are able to absorb stress and work with a wide range of people.

A few recommendations to get your Type B students ready for college:

1. Time management:  They need A LOT of help with time management.  They have drifted through middle and high school, moved only when the bell rang, and did assignments right before they were due.  The transition to college will be difficult for them without some time management tools.
2. Self examination: encourage more assignments that help them explore who they are.  These can be psychological profiles, such as Myers Briggs, philosophical exercises, or career explorations.  They will realize that they are not lazy or stupid, but just move to the beat of a different drummer.  

Of course, many such exercises are in "From Rebel to Ruler."  Click here for more information.

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