She's a cutie, Jim!

It's a fine line, isn't it, between letting them explore and make mistakes, (a.k.a. learn) and keeping them safe. Teaching our kids how to weigh risks and consequences is an important job, and one that takes boots on the ground, and often a face full of dirt.

EDIT: The same is true for adults too, but somewhere along the line most us lose our sense of wonder and curiosity, and replace it with a more safe, sendentry and cautious approach. (Just watch a 40 or 50 something year old try to learn a computer program for the first time. It's almost fearful. Hesitant to touch anything in case they make a mistake.) I'm not adovcating recklessness, but too many people go away overboard with that safety first approach. Public humiliation and ridicule, or at least the perception of it, may just serve to push them even further that way.

(And nope, sadly, I wasn't kidding about the kid who's parents took him out of Scouts because he had to use an outhouse at camp. Outhouses are gross and infested with germs and diseases....)