Have you ever had an INTP Teach/Prof?

[EyeSeeCold]

I ask this question in hindsight as I'm pretty sure my high school Algebra 2 teacher was an INTP. He was the stereotypical absent-minded professor, though his old age might have had a part in that. I'd always see him rambling about something and I found it interesting just to watch him go. He was very gullible and lighthearted even though his face carried a wearisome look (again age might be a factor, although this look is a characteristic of INTPs). He took a liking to me as I (naturally) was different from everyone else and their rambunctious behavior, this is the major reason why I am certain of his type; He noticed my divergent demeanor, but actually sought to understand me as a person not as a "troubled kid", another thing INTPs do. I truly respected him, for the same qualities I had, but didn't notice at the time.

Any stories you have to tell?

 

[Fallenman]

The only teacher/professor I had that I thought of as an INTP was last year. It was this absentminded philosophy teacher who loved to indulge in hypotheticals unlike other philosophy teachers. I mean don't get me wrong, in philosophy tangents are a mere way of life, but with him it was almost as if he was just enjoying the novelty of new ideas, sincerely exploring them for any nuggets of genuine ideas, but never knowing before hand where the trail might lead. He was an incredibly interesting feller, but I didn't get close to him, in a class of over a 100 people =P.

 

[Wish]

Yep - highschool Calculus teacher (one of my best teachers ever) and the 'professor' of an intro philosophy course in college (he was simply a grad student, however). Both would go on these awesome Ti-Ne tangents where they quietly mumble clarifications to themselves.

 

[Fukyo]

I think my physics teacher in highschool was an INTP.

 

[James Black]

I think I had some cool NT or NF teachers I enjoyed but not any INTPs. I'm not too picky, though: after the long slew of shitty teachers I've had, I'll take anyone iNtuitive. I generally tend to enjoy the company of xNxx: not sure why. NTs tend to think and explain in manners I can agree with, and NFs are just so cute with their ideas. Especially the ones who want to save the world or humanity. I think I've had too much NF contact though, as I said in another thread I'm starting to feel all "greater purpose" like, what with helping people and all.

 

[TruthSeeker]

Yup...I had an INTP philosophy prof. As typically INTP as you could get: practically fetishized logic, very skinny, charmingly awkward...he even walked into class one day with his collared shirt on backwards! :P

 

[chuhulil]

No. However, my Science teacher's boyfriend is an INTP. She says that he's rubbing off on her a little. That must explain why she's one of my favorite teachers ever. Other than that, no, I don't think I've had any INTP teachers. Though, I could have. I never really asked any of them about their personality type.

 

[Thoughtful]

Yeah, I had one teach an "Intro to Renewable Energy" class. It was funny seeing all my faults and merits mirrored by an academic. It was a great class to. INTPs make great teachers, if a bit distractable, and poor about setting hard deadlines.

Helps that he was actually enthusiastic about and living the principles he was trying to teach.

 

[EyeSeeCold]

Yup...I had an INTP philosophy prof. As typically INTP as you could get: practically fetishized logic, very skinny, charmingly awkward...he even walked into class one day with his collared shirt on backwards! :P

I occasionally put on my shirts backwards or inside out. A few times I've walked out the door with a wardrobe mishap. I sometimes wonder if my obliviousness to reality will be the death of me, lol. (Seriously... )

I never really asked any of them about their personality type.

If stereotypes hold true, than it is very obvious. The dead giveaway, I think, is the forgetful, lovable, easy-going yet concerned nature of the person.

 

[James Black]

I occasionally put on my shirts backwards or inside out. A few times I've walked out the door with a wardrobe mishap.

I've done that more than once. However, my new thing is "wear a suit every day," and that makes it a bit difficult to wear something backwards or inside out. I don't get how you can wear a collared shirt backwards, though. The whole buttoning up process tends to remind you whether or not its on right.

 

[snafupants]

Yeah, I had one teach an "Intro to Renewable Energy" class. It was funny seeing all my faults and merits mirrored by an academic. It was a great class to. INTPs make great teachers, if a bit distractable, and poor about setting hard deadlines.

Helps that he was actually enthusiastic about and living the principles he was trying to teach.

those foibles seem like strengths to me

 

[EyeSeeCold]

I've done that more than once. However, my new thing is "wear a suit every day," and that makes it a bit difficult to wear something backwards or inside out. I don't get how you can wear a collared shirt backwards, though. The whole buttoning up process tends to remind you whether or not its on right.

I plan on wearing suits and turtlenecks in the foreseeable future.
The problem with collared shirts isn't accidentally putting them on backwards. It's buttoning the wrong holes . Lol I went half a day like that without noticing.

 

[Tyria]

A physics teacher I had was probably INTP.

 

[DesertSmeagle]

i had a highschool science teacher who taught earth science, chemistry, astrnomy, and oceanography, and was the most obvious INTP you could meet. I could tell that he had broken dreams of becoming a famous scientist..but he wouldnt get papers back to us within 3 weeks, and he never had any organized grading system..his desk and entire room was filled with papers, and random science gear....what made him really a unique person was that he was a Christian, but not an expressed one.....we should add religion to the MBTI......but he taught us intelligent disign in astronomy, and was an incredibly smart and open minded person..

 

[James Black]

Further investigation makes me question my History professor's type. Unfortunately, its an online class so I never see the guy in person, but his videos and text seems slightly INTPish. Hard to tell without a face-to-face encounter to base it off of, though. Either way, I hate History and Social Studies: all my teachers in High School may have had something to do with that, but this guy seems different from the normal teachers I'm used to with the subject.

 

[shadowdrums4]

My percussion director I had all through high school was one. He was a really easy going guy and had a different grading system. He was always buzzing with new awesome show ideas and we'd see him sometimes in class, sometimes alone in his office, just making things up. His Ti-Ne tangents were freaking amazing. Somedays while working on the marching show, he'd walk up to an instrument and just start playing things, but you could see in his face he was in complete thought and completely oblivious to the fact that the band was still trying to practice. xp He'd set deadlines for things or test days that usually wouldn't happen until a week later, if they happened at all. "I saw you play it with the group and focused on you for a while, I know you know it. Why test it?" At the same time you got the "Competence is most important" vibe from him. You had to be at a basic level in mallets, timp, snare, set, and auxiliary; however, as long as you were working toward it and he could tell you were working, he was happy with you. He made that class what it was for me, and he made music theory what it was for me and for a lot of the other students. I really wish I had him for other classes.

Other than that I can think of 2 ENTPs one INFJ, a few ENFJs, a couple ENTJs. Really the only couple high school teachers I didn't like was an ESTJ and an ESFJ. The two of them were completely unreasonable and the ESTJ taught anatomy (which she did NOT understand at all. She didn't know the material and didn't know how to bring it down to an understandable level for everyone. She just quoted the text book, no explanation.) The ESFJ refused to take anything late, no matter what circumstances the kid was in. It could be the top student whose printer crashed, email didn't go through, and couldn't afford a flash drive and she still wouldn't take it late without killing 30 points. Oddly enough The ESFJ actually taught a lit class that I rocked at. My grades would have reflected it if only my papers would come in on time. Which rarely happened.

 

[Trebuchet]

I had a physics professor in college that had to be INTP as well as a kinesthetic learner. Everything he said made perfect, instant, obvious sense to me, but he wasn't especially known by others for being clear.

 

[DrA]

Thoughts from an INTP prof..

Hi,

I found this forum while surfing (insomnia, sigh), and joined it just to answer this question.

I am an INTP who has taught engineering for 20 years. Don't assume that you can judge a prof's type by his level of in-class organization. My students think I'm amazingly organized -- they don't realize that it's because I've taught the same subjects over and over (and over, and over...) After the fourth or fifth time through a course, I've worked out every single bug in it. I also don't go off on tangents in class -- partly it's shyness, and partly it's because I feel that students spend too much $$ on tuition to listen to me spout off my personal opinions to them, my captive audience.

If you really want to know if a prof is an INTP, go to their office. A messy office is a dead giveaway of a P, at least. Try to get them off script -- ask them some quirky open-ended problem instead. The INTP prof will be the one to drop what they're doing to help you brainstorm a solution. Also, don't ignore that feeling of instant connection. I don't get a lot of INTPs in my classes, but the ones I've hit it off very well with the few I do get.

 

[EyeSeeCold]

Re: Thoughts from an INTP prof..

Hi,

I found this forum while surfing (insomnia, sigh), and joined it just to answer this question.

I am an INTP who has taught engineering for 20 years. Don't assume that you can judge a prof's type by his level of in-class organization. My students think I'm amazingly organized -- they don't realize that it's because I've taught the same subjects over and over (and over, and over...) After the fourth or fifth time through a course, I've worked out every single bug in it. I also don't go off on tangents in class -- partly it's shyness, and partly it's because I feel that students spend too much $$ on tuition to listen to me spout off my personal opinions to them, my captive audience.

If you really want to know if a prof is an INTP, go to their office. A messy office is a dead giveaway of a P, at least. Try to get them off script -- ask them some quirky open-ended problem instead. The INTP prof will be the one to drop what they're doing to help you brainstorm a solution. Also, don't ignore that feeling of instant connection. I don't get a lot of INTPs in my classes, but the ones I've hit it off very well with the few I do get.

Welcome and thank you for your insightful contribution. This is why I started this thread, in retrospect, I regret not taking the time to fully enjoy the company one of my all-time favorite persons. I'll be sure to keep an eye out for any future INTP professors, not to play favorites, but to keep me motivated seeing an accomplished person with my disposition and abilities.

 

[shoeless]

i think my physics teacher last year was INTP, but he could have been INTJ. he had weird flashes of like... super anal-retentiveness. but usually he was pretty chill. definitely intellectual, definitely knew what he was talking about, definitely was absent-minded and weird. he also had david bowie eyes.

he was a pretty cool guy.

 

[Van]

I'm not sure if he's I or E but I have had an NTP lecturer. He's known for his hilarious diversions which most students claim have nothing to do with anything, but whatever he says always relates back to the point he's making. He goes over material VERY quickly and comes up with puns and the most ridiculous analogies to explain it.