> If this kid can't handle a little bit of criticism
I do expect adults - over 25 - to take the rough with the smooth. But children are not adults.
I think you're assuming your own competence at pedagogy. I would want to shield children from you until they've developed the resilience you demand from them.
Also, the emotional tone - sheesh
Giving and getting feedback is hard. It's a skill and it doesn't come easily to most. Sometimes hurting someone's feelings is inevitable, but starting from a place of "toughen up buttercup" is really self-serving and counterproductive.
There is always someone better than you, and always someone worse. Always someone who knows something you don't, and always someone who can learn from you.
He's 17 years old, so he's not a full adult. But classing him as a child, in the same category as 6 year olds, seems further from the truth than calling him an adult. 17 years old is old enough to join the army, today, in numerous developed first world nations like New Zealand, Norway, and with parental consent, Germany and America.