To Give Children the MBTI or Not

Age restrictions on the MBTI? Ha! 

It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men. (and Women)

~ Frederick Douglass

And, I will add: Adults need therapy to inspect their expectations. Children simply need healthy formatives, of which the over-generalization and apt though at the same time vague MBTI can be a solid tool for self-awareness. Why wait until adulthood to Know Thyself. If one starts with that in childhood, the lifelong pursuit of Self-clarity Is an FICP — Functionally-Interrelated-Component-Part — one of many.

I find it relatively farcical to shield children from most anything. What of times of war or famine or plague or… penademic? Children oftentimes function with more curiosity and wonderment than the I’d-rather-not-see-that denial of many adults.

Frankly, hand them the MBTI with, “Hey, try this and let me know how it feels to you.” I gather children’s responses might expand and desiccate and condense the MBTI to be something more than an average of averages. Heck, they might even evolve it into the Both~And of its powerful potential rather than its current Either/Or that expresses its less than powerful limits.

The MBTI is Simply One of Many Tools

The MBTI is simply one of many tools. And, just because one has a hammer in hand does not mean to only go around looking for nails.

Oh, and by the way, Jung was not raptured into enlightenment by a demon. It was a Daemon. There’s a difference.

Children are not mature enough for the MBTI? Shaking head. Maybe the MBTI is not evolved enough for them to resonate as being a natural expression. When I uncloak that veiled statement, it sounds like people who are adverse to give children the MBTI are saying maturity is really simply admonishing children for being honest to supplant the learned mirages and blind spots of Adulthood.

Yellow Car Syndrome

I have a concept. It’s called Yellow Car Syndrome. In 2005 when I went to buy a brand new car I decided to let serendipity take the reins and I dispensed with all the education from Consumer Reports I had. It was time to let the mind forget as the body remembered. Time to dance so to speak. Now, you know what you need to. Go buy a car.

There were ZERO yellow cars on the road to the dealership. Not one. I would swear to that under oath. I walk in the showroom? There’s this bright, sunflower yellow Euro-trash looking car. I had wanted something bigger, though there it was. 3 steps in, “I’ll take it!” An hour later after paperwork, I drove it off the lot. There must have been 50 yellow cars on the road in the 20+ mile trek back home. Point being, until I saw the yellow car, I was incapable of seeing it. Same with MBTI. Give it to them early. They’ll play with it and basically evolve with their own, personal, yellow car syllabus. By adulthood their personality won;t be a limiting thing needing therapy. It may very well be… the next Carl Gustavo Jung, Julia Morgan, or William Blake or My Friend Fred (Nietzche). Or better. Anais Nin.

“There came a time when the risk to remain tight in the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.” ~ Anais Nin 

If knowledge is power, give them power early. Maybe by the time they are adults it won’t be a greed thing but a Self-Sovereignty thing where they are strong enough to be able to be gentle. You know, better to be a warrior in the garden than a gardener in a war.

In Closing

Water conforms to its cup. I see no reason not to give children healthy, Self-awareness tools early and often. Seems to me the unconscious is more powerful than to be bullied by the MBTI. Heck, it will simply become another yellow bucket and blue shovel for them to play with towards…

Know Thyself, and You Will Know the Universe.

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