I'm reading over Gifts Differing, and the part about Intuition is making some things make sense.
Communication from teacher to student begins with the spoken word in the classroom, where the student must be able to listen effectively, and later includes the written word in textbooks, which the student must be able to read. Because words, the necessary medium of education, have to be translated from symbols into meaning by the listener's intuition, the translation is naturally easier for intuitives than for sensing types. Intuitives use their favorite kind of perception, but sensing types have to use their less-liked, less-developed kind of perception, which takes more time and effort, especially when the words are abstract.
So, basically, reading is exhausting for Sensors and recharging for Intuitives. A stereotype of ISTJ is a student that excels because of their ability to adhere to structure and routine. I can understand why that would work, but as an ISTJ, the actual reading part of school is boring to me, unless it's REALLY interesting. This makes me remember a thread in this forum about what toys INTJ's played with as children. Most of you said you read....a lot, and that makes perfect sense.
This makes another thing about me make sense. I wanted to learn more about Excel, so I bought this massive Excel 2007 book. I tried going through it, but it was just...ugh. Although I saw a great application of the knowledge, the actually learning it through the book wasn't very feasible.
This would explain why the reasons for an S and N to read differ. The S only reads to gain something tangible from reading. The N reads purely for leisure. When I look at reading something, I think, "What am I going to gain from this?" A girl I work with that's an INFJ, she eats, sleeps, lives and breathes books.
These are mainly observations, and I'm enjoying Gifts Differing. I'm just wondering if I'm understanding this right.