Were We Tougher?

I was just posting back and forth with a good friend's daughter on Facebook.  Syd is a young teenager, a very pretty young girl with a good head on her shoulders.  Hopefully it stays that way in the upcoming years!  We started posting together because many of the local schools, including hers and my son's, are already on a two hour delay for tomorrow.  The standing temps are supposed to be about 30 below zero and if there's wind it'll feel that much colder.  Ya know, when I was a kid I remember standing out there waiting for that bus when it was so damned cold that my contact lenses froze in my eyes!!!  Literally!!
She pointed out that she doesn't have the modern conveniences I listed that make so many kids' lives easier:  a cell phone, her iPod has gone missing, she doesn't use the Weather Channel to predict the daily weather, her teachers don't allow calculators in class.  She straightens her hair where I used to crimp mine....which is basically the same tool, so the same burns and all that joy.  I wore mini-skirts, but her skinny jeans that are skin tights aren't exactly providing her with any pockets of warmth.  So yeah, she's not getting pampered in any special way right there!

But are they?  When I was in school the Superintendent's policy was that if she, in her 4X4 Blazer could get to the school then so could we.  And we did.  We bitched and moaned and cursed her for all eternity, but we got to school.  I remember once the High School WAS cancelled because the boiler had given up....I was in middle school at the time so we still had to go to school.  It was c-c-c-c-cooooold that day!!!  They say that it's because of the walkers.  Anybody living in a one mile radius of their school walks and there is no special bus to go get them when it's this cold out.  And being a town of about 12K people there isn't any public transportation.  Many parents to drive their kids and car pool others when the weather sucks, but many don't have the ability to do that.  Didn't kids walk when I was in school? Sure they did.

I guess, back then, people expected more out of kids and sued less over not getting their way.  Now-a-days a parent with legal resources would probably sue the school if their child walked to school and ended up with a cold a week later.  I'm hoping that's an exaggeration....but a nasty voice in one of these dark corners thinks maybe it's not so exaggerated.   Are we a better society for making things easier for the youth of today?  Does sheltering them the way we do really help them grow and mature in a productive way?  Sure, we're not hurting them any by not making them stand on the side of the road or walk to school when it's 30 degrees below zero.  I'd have LOVED it if they'd let me stay home!  But this is just one thing among many....how helpful are we being, really, when we're being so very helpful?