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The Catalyst of Confidence In a world where children are flooded with information and seek instantaneous gratification from social media and digital technologies, it is pertinent to remind our children that patience and persistence are crucial to success and to confidence. These important attributes do not stem from only tackling that which is easy, so, as children develop, they must endure failure in order to appreciate their learning journey and grow. Confidence can be defined as the feeling of self assurance arising from an appreciation of one’s abilities or qualities and, as John F Kennedy once said, “Every accomplishment begins with the decision to try”. Within a school environment, while our core business is teaching and learning, we must address skills such as confidence in order for students to thrive. While some believe that not all children can be confident at a young age, we need to shift our definition to ensure we are not simply referring to confidence being outward and extroverted. At Toorak, we nurture a variety of ways for every student to build their confidence including making eye contact, not shying away from conversations with adults and older students, being able to accept compliments and acknowledgments with pride, and presenting in front of their peers. Our focus is centered on one’s inner confidence and self belief and is perpetuated through multiple opportunities to experience success in front of others. Our commitment as educators is to encourage our youngest learners to be risktakers, to lean into new challenges and to embrace unfamiliar opportunities. With this approach, we see our students defer less to 'opting out'. They realise that the norm is to try and possibly fail and learn to appreciate that the most rewarding things in life are often the most difficult.
