Guidance or enabling?

Working with students every day is both adventurous and daunting.

Each day I have a chance to learn something new and to see the world through the eyes of my students - to hear what they have to say and really question my perception on concepts.

However, every now and then I run across article like this one in Psychology Today, Declining Student Resilience: A Serious Problem for Colleges, and I know that this issue of student hand-holding starts long before our children graduate high school and venture on to college.

But the question of what are we supposed to do to fix the problem comes into play?

As a teacher I try my hardest to challenge students and help them to stand on their own feet, to accept that failure isn't truly failure until giving up, and that there are other ways to approach problems. However, has a parent, I want to protect  my child from any harm that could befall her.

So where does the happy medium come into play: the perfect split of parental protection and allowing children/students to make mistakes?

That's a good question.

Check out the hyperlink above and feel free to share your opinion of how the k-12 experience is lending a hand to post graduation concerns.