It is a very interesting question and one of my favorite types since in my opinion it doesn't have a correct answer.
I certainly hope that as parents DH and I are preparing DS for the journey. I think with any child you have to accept that part of your challenge is figuring out how to teach them to go around the obstacles that they cannot go through while helping them to learn that they can go through alot more than they think. I think all children need to learn both how to persevere through a challenge and how to work around an obstacle. With some children the methods used to try to teach this skill will be different.
For example, a recent thread talked about a child that was getting bullied at school. This becomes an obstacle to work around on the journey rather than persevere through. Trying a new school or homeschooling in this situation seems to be a good step to teaching a child that you don't have to accept everything. Sometimes you need to be able to walk away and try a different path on the journey.
No matter if a child is in a PS, Homes schooled or Private school there will be challenges to be met and overcome. If a parent always takes the challenge away to smooth the journey, then I think we are creating the journey for the child instead of preparing the child for the journey. However, if no matter what, we make sure that our children have to make choices and deal with the consequences of those choices, then we are providing life long tools that will help the child on the journey. Sometimes the journey will take them soaring, other times it will be like slogging through a blizzard.
I guess for me it comes down to what can I do to help my child have the skills and tools for that journey based on the information I have right now.
I hope that didn't ramble too much!
