Teach Confidence – Not Fear

America’s young people are in trouble. The data is piling up. Kids are not being taught critical skills, how to think, work, dare, and thrive. They are unduly anxious—in historical context—but this can be fixed. Adults must teach confidence, not fear.

Nationally, the raw numbers are arresting. Some states are worse than others, but all paid dearly for misconceived COVID mandates and lost time living and learning.

Harvard’s Center for Education Policy Research reports education outcomes continue to decline, suggesting policymakers need to think harder and work together.

In “The Scary Truth About How Far American Kids Have Fallen,” the Center notes “more than four years after the pandemic shuttered classrooms and disrupted lives of millions of children …” we are still in trouble.

In the wake of COVID, “effects were seen almost immediately, as students’ performance in reading and math began to dip …” and the New York Times reported, “The pandemic erased two decades of progress in math and reading.”

But now – as 2025 unfolds – we have a larger concern, “non-recovery” by kids, lack of resilience, and no rebound for young adults. Why? In part because critical life skills – social, psychological, academic – were not taught, and life keeps coming.

On the academic side, we can see effects on scores. “Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study” just found that “between 2019 and 2023, test scores for American 4^th graders in math dropped by 18 points and scores for 8^th graders dropped 27 points.”

Other studies suggest the same, up to half of all kids are a grade behind. The slide is accelerated by absenteeism, anxiety, depression, drugs, and violence.

Not surprisingly, anxiety originating in the pandemic mandates and lost social interaction has been compounded by inflexible policy responses, lack of accountability, and unhelpful hysteria about politics, jobs, crime, health, and climate.

Another recent medical study found: “Rising anxiety and depression in primary school students adversely affects their development and academics, burdening families and schools. This trend necessitates urgent, focused research within this young demographic. This alarming trend calls for a systematic bibliometric analysis to develop effective preventive and remedial strategies.”

Another report, citing still other studies, declared “Anxiety and depression are spiking among young people. No one knows why.” The media throw hands in the air, oddly like arsonists handwringing over a fire they helped start.

The Wall Street Journal last week expanded the damage assessment circle. A wide swath of young Americans, even after school – face personal lags. Wrote the Journal: “As American 30-somethings increasingly bypass the traditional milestones of adulthood, economists are warning that what seemed like a lag may in fact be a permanent state of arrested development.”

What does that really mean? The data suggests slower learning of self-reliance and skills that reinforce confidence, producing less financial independence, more living alone, slower marriage, childbearing, and missed markers of adulthood.

In short, we are at another intersection – lean in, or shrug. We can choose not to care, or we can affirmatively reach out and teach by example, offering positive reinforcement for self-reliance, role modeling, job training, how to make decisions, how to fail and recover – or the reverse, permitting fear, self-doubt, and anxiety to win.

What is the answer? The answer is to reverse engineer the problem, teach trust and responsibility, and go back to basics: How to fail, learn, succeed, and keep going, how to have faith in yourself and – yes – faith in God, understanding things work out.  

We have to remove the impediments to confidence, personal growth, and achievement, stop excusing escapism, replace bad influences—from ambivalence to drugs—with good ones and affirmatively teach resilience—how to step up, not back.

Can this be done? Yes, of course it can. Can we give kids the life lessons, role models, sources of peace, predictability, faith, and calm we were once taught? Yes, of course we can. This can be fixed. Adults must teach … confidence not fear.

Robert Charles is a former Assistant Secretary of State under Colin Powell, former Reagan and Bush 41 White House staffer, attorney, and naval intelligence officer (USNR). He wrote “Narcotics and Terrorism” (2003), “Eagles and Evergreens” (2018), and is National Spokesman for AMAC. Robert Charles has also just released an uplifting new book, “Cherish America: Stories of Courage, Character, and Kindness” (Tower Publishing, 2024).