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Growing research shows a crisis in our youth’s confidence and a marked increase in stress and anxiety.1 Summer at the library is vital for addressing opportunity gaps in learning and fostering interest-driven reading and learning, but what about the critical role library programs play in helping youth become confident learners? As youth services library staff build, deliver, evaluate, and advocate for summer programs, an essential aspect of summer programming should be the deliberate focus on building confidence in young people. In a time that has exploded as that of the “anxious generation,2 ” building confidence can help children flourish. In this interview with author Joshua Faden, president/founder of Community of Teachers and author of The Confidence Project: A Journey Through the Confidence Constellation, we explore the importance of nurturing elements of confidence in youth and the crucial role that public libraries play in supporting and cultivating confident learners, specifically through summer programs.
Liz: Let’s start with your background and how you define confidence as critical for learning success.
Joshua: Thank you, Liz! As a former third-grade teacher in the Washington, D.C. public schools and founder of my own company, I have dedicated my life to understanding the foundational aspect of confidence in the overall success of children’s lives.
While in the classroom, I worked with students who came in completely resistant to learning and unable to view themselves as capable. Without even knowing the “how” or “why” behind what I was doing at the time, I helped students to change their mindset and find a sense of belonging and possibility in their personal and academic lives. Once I left the classroom, I began working one-on-one or in small groups with learners of all ages, helping them to believe in themselves and their abilities.
Having had the incredible honor of working with so many students over the years, many for multiple years, I was able to reflect on my practices and examine the elements that were universal to the work I was doing with individuals. The culmination was my first book, The Confidence Project, which articulates my findings and distills my work down into my model for confidence building, as well as my toolkit for helping students to more efficiently and effectively...