Emotions

The counsellor was talking about how children should be allowed to express emotions and when she had spoken to the seventh standard boys they were surprised when she told them that it was allright to cry when they felt like as they had grown up thinking that boys should not cry. It reminded me of the incident which happened with varun when he was in fourth standard. In the class one day he cried because he felt that something he had made had not come out the way he wanted. The teacher (the same one who was the spokesperson) when we met her in the Parent teacher meet the first sentence she spoke was,'are you putting any pressure on your child?' 'varun needs to be strong he cannot be so sensitive and should not express himself in this way.. the child should know how to control his emotions etc etc..
She came on to us in such an aggressive manner that we also put our foot down and told her not to be judgemental and if he had expressed himself his feelings should have been dealt which of course had not been done. After that she actually apologised and did not talk about varun like that again atleast till now.
But it has left me wondering on one side the counsellor stresses on the expression of emotions and on the other hand the teachers are doing the opposite to the children..where lies the problem?..not enough awareness to the teachers or unwillingness to learn or lack of understanding that they have the power in them which can make or break a child from within.