When our children cut themselves, we don't tell them that life is cruel sometimes. We wouldn't deliberately send them to dangerous places in order to have them wounded again, over and over, in order to learn a 'lesson' to be more careful in future.

When a child is psychologically hurt, the pain can be intolerable. Allowing a child to continue to feel this pain in the hope that a 'lesson' would be learned is unfair, especially when the same 'lesson' is repeated over and over each day. This 'lesson' does not 'toughen a child up'. Why would you have a child be so tough, anyway? Do you think that a painful lesson learned in childhood would be worthwhile if it helped you cope as an adult? As adults, we learn to cope with pain a great deal of the time. We do not need to start this young, nor in this way. Hating school and being bullied does not prepare you for participating in real life; it just conditions you to accept that you will never be able to change anything, because no one will ever help you.

Education should be about taking life and moulding it into the shape you want, not vice versa. We want our children to be proactive, idealistic and happy. We should not, therefore, be prepared to tell them that life is hard. If they come across injustices, they will have the means to fight for their own rights as well as for others.