Do You Know Your Students' 'True Colors'?

Knowing the number of blues, oranges, golds, and greens in a classroom can help a teacher plan lessons and manage a class.

No, that is not part of a classroom decorating plan; those colors represent personality types determined by the True Colors system, developed by Don Lowry.

Once a student's main color has been identified, along with the character traits that go with that color, teachers can adapt their teaching to the student's learning style and personality. When students know what color their teacher is, they can better understand him or her.

Sorting out the Rainbow

Lowry developed the True Colors program in 1979, after conducting research with more than 20,000 people, according to Connie Jennings, assistant training director for True Colors Communication Group. The basis for True Colors is work done by David Keirsey, who adapted the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, a standardized test used to identify personality types.

True Colors has trained more than 4,000 people nationwide, as well as people in Canada and other countries, to teach others how to use True Colors, Jennings says. The two-and-a-half day training to become an instructor costs $750; materials for students cost about $5 per child and about $16 per adult. A half-day workshop with a True Colors instructor working with a group costs $1,500.

True Colors sorts people into four colors, although no one is exclusively one color. The system uses the following colors to represent specific personality types: Blue, Green, Gold and Orange

These are people who tend to be orderly, dependable, thrive on structure, and enjoy helping others; most teachers are golds, according to True Colors information. Gold

They are sensitive, empathetic, loyal, and enthusiastic. Blue

These are the analytical, logical, and intellectual types; they become irritated with drill and routine. Green

Generally, they are people who are active, competitive, energetic, and impulsive. They seek variety and dislike rules. Orange

People determine what their main color is by taking an assessment test, during which they indicate whether certain characteristics are similar or dissimilar to them. Besides having a main color, everyone has aspects of other colors, or traits, in their personalities as well.

Several educators and retired educators say they have used True Colors not only to help teachers relate to their students but also to help staff members work together more effectively.

Knowing a child's personality type also can help a teacher decide how to respond if the child has a problem at home says Robert Adams, a principal from Houston. "The type of nurturing a child needs depends on what color he or she is."

True Colors shows teachers how they can base their lessons and teaching styles on children's needs, rather than requiring that all students adjust to a teacher's personality, according to Adams.

Teachers should plan two or three activities in a day that engage all personality types.

Adams also uses True Colors with faculty members to help them work together better. The experience teaches staff what they can expect from different personality types and how they can react to those types.

Among the other benefits another former teacher and administrator from Washington, Ann Kashiwa sees in True Colors is that it promotes tolerance and communication among people.

"It provides a language of civility," Kashiwa says. "It has implications for relationships and deeper understandings of where people are coming from. It shows that you can both be correct; you can start to look at a person in a different light."

Students of True Colors are told to avoid "color bashing" -- blaming their own personality type or someone else's when something isn't working out, Kashiwa adds.

"In order to be successful in life, you have to draw on all your colors." Kashiwa

Article by Ellen R. Delisio Education World® Copyright © 2001 Education World

What color are you? Open the “True Colours” WebQuest found in your Copy to Desktop Folder