Kobrin A. Discrimination of introverts and extroverts in the context of right to education // Актуальні питання державотворення в Україні: матеріали Міжнародної науково-практичної конференції (20 травня 2016 року) / Редкол.: д.ю.н. І. С. Гриценко (голова), к.ю.н. І. С. Сахарук (відп. ред.) та ін. – В 3-х томах. — Том 3. – К.: ВПЦ «Київський університет», 2016. – c.251-252 |
«People are equal» is what all civilized laws say around the world meaning people should be treated similarly [Paul de Vries, Equal opportunity, Blackwell Reference, accessible at http://goo.gl/SbS1fe]. This has not always worked since all people are different. Some people are strong and others are weak. People need different treatment because of their nature, but sometimes it leads to discrimination. In a modern society, supremacy of human rights reigns and requires all people to be treated equally. Otherwise, a wrongdoer bears liability for his discrimination actions against someone. More or less all of people are protected against all titles of discrimination, but there is no answer about legal protection of introverts and extroverts, especially in education when they are young and weak. Accordingly, the main idea of this paper is to provide an observation how law can protect introverts and extroverts in education. The paper has four parts. The first part shows peculiarities of introverts and extroverts. The second part emphasizes the need to treat introverts and extroverts differently. The third part points out that schools and universities are most stressful places for introverts and extroverts. The final part provides a legal analysis of protection of introverts and extroverts in the light of the right to education.
Introverts and extroverts have different psychological and biological peculiarities. This is comparable with the differences between women and men, heterosexuals and homosexuals, and so on. For example, only women can be pregnant while men naturally cannot be that. The situation with introverts and extroverts is the same. When introverts are forced to express themselves, they do this fighting with themselves. When extroverts are sitting somewhere alone, it is boring for them. The same situations with an extrovert in the first one and an introvert in the second one have an opposite effect. Extroverts are not afraid of expressing their thoughts and do it naturally. At the same time an introvert sitting alone feels comfortable. Thus, introverts and extroverts have their own characteristics. Introverts and extroverts should be treated differently as they have these peculiarities. An example is when a woman is pregnant she has additional holidays, especially during the last months of the pregnancy. The difference here is that introverts and extroverts are not singled out in society and people always treat them similarly. A good example is a situation with teachers’ pressure on introverts by announcing that «One-third of your grade will be based on classroom participation» [Otto Kroeger and Janet M. Thuesen, Type Talk: The 16 Personality Types that Determine How We Live, Love and Work. New York: Dell Publishing, 1989]. This leads to discrimination as introverts are not provided the same comfortable conditions as extroverts. Sometimes there is a likelihood of discrimination of extroverts, especially when 251 |
there are many written tasks and extraverts cannot express themselves orally that they usually prefer. Thus, it is discrimination of introverts and extroverts, if they are treated similarly.
Introverts and extroverts are vulnerable mainly at schools and universities. As they are young and not seasoned, that is why they cannot resist significantly being an introvert or extravert. This is with what they have to live with. After finishing schools and universities they can easily use their psychological and biological peculiarities. For example, there are some differences between such legal professions as barristers and solicitors. One of them is that a barrister represents a client in courts which is preferably extravert’s job, whilst a solicitor has to deal with written legal matters which is mostly preferably an introvert’s job. Thus, at an older age they are free to choose, but when studying there is no option and they are forced to feel this pressure. Law does not protect introverts and extroverts, but it should at least during the educational period. The example with pregnancy shows that a woman has a right for the pregnancy leave. To sum up, introverts and extroverts are different people and each group has to be treated differently in order to provide them the opportunity to satisfy their needs in the context of right to education when they are vulnerable and not prepared for life. Accordingly, there is a need to set the legal framework for the protection of introverts and extroverts. 252 |