The world has gotten really efficient at making decisions for us.

Apps guess what we want to watch next (often correctly). GPS tells us exactly which route to take. News feeds tell us what to read. Even our coffee makers can start brewing before we wake up.

The convenience is awesome.

But wrapped in a world of convenience is an environment where kids have fewer opportunities to make meaningful choices than previous generations.

Choice-making is a skill, of course. It gets stronger with practice and weaker without it.

Without regular opportunities to make decisions, wrestle with a little uncertainty, and live with outcomes, kids can get pretty anxious with the whole process of having to decide.

What if I make the wrong choice?

What if people make fun of me?

What if I regret it?

It’s easy to see what happens next. They start looking for someone else to tell them what to do instead of trusting their own judgment.

This is not a flaw of character. It is a flaw of an environment where we make fewer and fewer of our own decisions.

How Camp Builds This Skill

I’m broken record on this but it’s worth mentioning again: For kids, camp is just fun.

They aren’t walking around saying things like, “Wow, I really got to improve my decision-making skills today.”

But, the reality is, it’s happening everywhere.

Campers choose activities at each department.

They decide which elements to climb on the The Spaceship.

They pick their strategy for Steal the Bacon.

They choose what to buy at Kneeman Markus.

All things considered, the stakes are low, but the practice is real. Whether or not they enjoy the result of the choice becomes valuable information for next time.

The Confidence Tree

I think about this a lot while walking around camp.

At camp, kids have to make choices, both big and small.

Context matters. One camper might know exactly what to do at Fine Arts and is less sure when they go to Outdoors, or vice versa.

When campers own their choices (even with hints of uncertainty), they have the opportunity to build confidence in their own decision-making process.

And at camp, the process is so much easier.

It kind of looks like this:

This version of the confidence tree is tough to find in other places because it has three pieces that are mostly unique to camp.

1. Most decisions lead to fun.
2. The outcomes are generally low stakes.
3. If it doesn’t work, you know you have another chance soon.

And if we follow the diagram, it’s not unusual to stack confident decisions all the way down.

Why Agency Matters Beyond Camp

When kids get comfortable with this sense of agency, they stop looking around for permission before taking action.

Maybe we can call it “decision confidence,” or the ability to choose a path and commit to it, even when not 100% certain.

This shows up all over the place. Speaking up in class or choosing electives. Navigating tricky social situations without constantly worrying what the rest of the crowd thinks. Handling college admissions and career decisions.

Building confidence at decision-making opens all kinds of opportunities that may not be available to someone who is paralyzed by choice.

Ready for anything

Learning how to make good choices, especially in the face of uncertainty, takes practice.

We must prepare kids for a world that’s getting more complex, not simpler, even if the beats of regular life are easier.

They need to be able to make decisions without perfect information. Adapt when things don’t go as planned. Trust their own judgment.

This takes lots of reps, and camp is a perfect place to practice. It’s low stakes, mostly fun, and if something doesn’t work perfectly you’ll get another chance soon.

The world may be getting more convenient, but the big decisions are still up to us.

We want kids to feel confident in handling the choices that really matter, and know that they will be okay no matter how it shakes out.

Erec Sir