A Crisis of Self-Confidence

By Ed Madison & Hans Boyle

More than 40 years ago, President Jimmy Carter addressed a nation reeling from a recession and a worsening gas shortage to discuss a deeper problem plaguing the country.

Carter dubbed this “invisible threat” a crisis of confidence. Not only did Americans lack faith in their government’s ability to solve a growing energy crisis, but they also lacked faith in the institutions of their democracy.

While an embattled Carter would continue to see his popularity decline (he eventually lost the presidency to Ronald Reagan in a landslide election the following year), his speech touched a nerve with an American public yearning for a government they could once again trust and rely upon.

Today, as the United States government struggles to regain the public’s trust in its institutions, millions of students face a new and growing crisis of confidence — or rather a crisis of self-confidence.

Dr. Miguel Cardona, President Biden’s newly confirmed head for the Department of Education (a department President Carter established in 1980), acknowledged the heavy toll the pandemic has taken on students’ mental health in the opening remarks of his confirmation hearing in February.

Young people have struggled with low self-confidence, anxiety, and depression long before the first reported cases of COVID-19 upended the school year. As it has for other issues confronting the nation, the pandemic only further revealed the problem’s extent.

Seventy percent of teens (ages 13 to 17) said they saw anxiety and depression as major issues facing their peers, according to a 2018 Pew survey. These results held true across gender, racial, and socioeconomic boundaries.

It’s no wonder COVID-19 struck the mental health of young students especially hard. According to the CDC, between March and October of 2020, mental-health-related emergency department visits increased by 24 percent among children ages 5 to 11 compared to the same period the year before. Mental-health-related visits increased by 31 percent among teens 12 to 17 during the same time.

So why are students feeling so much pressure? One big reason may be grades. Sixty-one percent of teens pointed to the pressure of achieving academic success as a top stressor in that 2018 Pew survey. Just for comparison, only around 30 percent of teens pointed to the desire to “look good” as a significant pressure.

Why have young people become so consumed with grades? One likely possibility is that more and more students are caught in the perfectionist trap. While being a perfectionist isn’t necessarily a bad trait, perfectionism taken to the extreme can be quite unhealthy. Harmful perfectionism manifests as students agonizing over simple assignments and concerned more with failure than learning. Simply put, students begin to tie their identity to their grades, fueling their anxiety whenever they get bad marks.

Emphasis on preparation for standardized tests over the past two decades has undoubtedly added to student’s lack of confidence, with young people realizing their abilities are scrutinized as early as four-years old.

Obviously, encouraging students to aim high and succeed in their studies should be applauded, but not to the point where students become so afraid of failure they shy away from challenging yet meaningful learning experiences.

The Journalistic Learning Initiative (JLI) works to develop a student’s confidence by moving them outside their comfort zone. JLI places students in inquiry and project-based environments — much like professional newsrooms — and allows them to conceive and pursue their own projects.

Crucially, working on long-term projects allows students to redraft their work, freeing them from the pressure to get everything right on the first try. This kind of learning environment also encourages students to share their work with peers and receive constructive feedback.

Now, more than ever, we need to restore in our students a sense of confidence in themselves. Much like the importance of having an American public confident in their government’s effectiveness in a crisis, the pandemic has shown us the importance of having students confident in their abilities during a chaotic school year.