There is always a lot of talk about the temperaments in Waldorf ed. A simple way to think of them is through the Pooh characters.
Pooh= Phlegmatic (water)
Eyore= Melancholic (earth)
Tigger= Choleric (fire)
Piglet= Sanguine (air)
I am fire and have one water and one earth child. It is often challenging for me but the more I learned about the temperaments the better I felt equipped to meet my children where they are, rather than where I am. As a Tigger I move rather quickly and pack a lot of things into any given day. My little one is Pooh and loves to move really slowly and is really not in a hurry to do anything, ever. Then there's the big sister Eyore, who generally carries the weight of the world on her shoulders. She is serious and feels things very deeply. Before learning about the temperaments I was far more likely to dismiss her woes- because there are MANY! But being dismissive to a melancholic is like a stab straight to the heart. It really hurts them. I am often tempted to respond to her as my own temperament would want to respond to something: Big sister stubs her toe and begins to cry. I look at the tiny scratch and say, "ouchy" and keep moving. This of course only makes her cry harder. Until I meet her with stopping and really taking a look at the itty bitty, teeny tiny scratch and acknowledge it, she will not get off of it. So, I've learned over the years to deal with my daughter. I feel it's my duty as a mother to learn as much as possible so I can best respond to each child's needs.
Then there is my brother. My 45 year old brother who just retired from flying jets for the Air Force. We were bbq'ing the other day when he went to light the bbq and it blew up in his face singeing his eyebrows and front hair and arm hairs. He came in the house and my mom (fire times 1000! - like Tigger on crack) and I start cracking up- only because we had both done it to ourselves in the past year and ran around with sparse eyebrows for months. When it happened to us we nearly wet ourselves in hysteria. He did not laugh- at all. On the contrary, after we started laughing he began to sulk. We of course stopped our snickering and asked if he was ok, to which he replied, "It really hurts. It's burned." From experience we knew it hurt, but it did not stop us from thinking it was funny when we were the victims. But Tigger would also laugh at himself. Imagine Eyore burning himself! Not a laughing matter. So the whole night he didn't really get off of it and sulked.
It didn't occur to me until I was going to bed that my brother is melancholic! I certainly have learned not to ever make light or laugh at my daughter, but had never really even thought of my grown siblings as a particular temperament. My brother was in the Air Force for a long time. He's done basic training and countless flights to Iraq and Afghanistan- I would think a little bbq mishap wouldn't phase him. But if we had all said, "Oh, my gosh! Are you ok?" he would've gotten right off of it and said, "Ya, it's fine." not making a big deal of it at all. But because we never asked and laughed at him, it really hurt him.
A lot of parents get upset over teachers using talking about the temperaments in school feeling that it is just another way to label children. I understand that as I dislike categorizing people as well. However, I have found much wisdom in leaning about the temperaments just to see others from their perspective rather than my own. People are different and do process things differently and I find it extremely helpful to be able to better respond to someone having a bit more information. It is also important to note that the goal for adults is to be balanced in all four and people are rarely only one temperament. However, most people do have a dominant temperament.
More info can be found in the books like, Children and their Temperaments.
