Why We Are Producing Butterflies That Can't Fly

First the heart warming story to set the stage:

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~Butterfly Story~
A man found a cocoon of a butterfly.
One day a small opening appeared, he sat and watched
the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force
its body through that little hole. Then it seemed to stop
making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far
as it could and it could go no farther.
So the man decided to help the butterfly, he took a pair of
scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon.
The butterfly then emerged easily.
But it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings.
The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected
that, any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be
able to support the body, which would contract in time.
Neither happened!
In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling
around with a swollen body and shriveled wings.
It never was able to fly.
What the man in his kindness and haste did not understand
was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required
for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening were
nature's way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly
into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once
it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.
Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our life.
If we went through our life without any obstacles, it
would cripple us. We would not be as strong
as what we could have been. And we could never fly.
So have a nice day and struggle a little.
When you are under pressure and stress, remember
That you are a better person after you have gone through it.
Author Unknown

For those who are metaphorically challenged, what I am really saying is that we are producing kids/students/adults who are not prepared to meet life's challenges because we don't allow them to face tough choices and teach them to cope with their decisions.

This is a follow up to my previous post.

What is it about "power and control people" that they want to own some one's problem. To further this discussion, what problem is it of a school board member if a student, even if the student is the daughter of a school board member as in the linked article, does not get to exempt an exam? Is the empathy so strong that a school board member is compelled to act? Is feeling sorry for some one's predicament healthy? Is the school board member responsible for students coming to school sick? Is the school board member responsible for every decision a student makes, so therefore policies must be written to deal with every decision?

Policies and laws do not stop poor decisions. Zero tolerance policies are a good example. Trying to keep administrators from making poor decisions just doesn't work all of the time.

Life is full of tough choices. One of the greatest things we can teach is to develop the best judgement possible, make the best choice possible and then live with it. Running from or shielding our kids from these lessons of life does not help. In fact, we should use all of the chances possible found in early development so that real tough life choices can be better coped with later on in life.

I worked about two years with a young woman who knew she was going to die. I learned a lot from her about what it is like to make daily choices. As the time got closer, it was I who had the difficulty facing death. I don't know how she did it, but she was smiling and laughing to the very end.