In a way I feel like a lot of the Flight Schools now are too "kind" to their Students. So much of what I was shown when I did my Instructor Rating was all about making the Students feel "Safe" and "Comfortable", which to an extent I agreed with, but felt it went too far in that they were isolated from the harsh truths of Aviation and I know a couple of people from that school have lately lost their lives. I don't blame this school but I do blame a culture that seems to have arisen in which we're trying to be "Kind" and "PC" and always toe the line with students lest one become uncomfortable, feel scared or even worse, make a complaint to their University!!
When I first started, first day of ground school, we were all sat down and introduced to our Ground Instructors, whom to our great luck were two of the best Instructors/Pilots/People I have ever met to this day with a variety of experience from both Civil and Military Flying worlds. Our main Ground Instructor got up after these introductions and told us to look to the left and look to the right and that by the time we finished our Aviation Careers the chances were that one of those people would no longer be with us. It shocked us but put what we were about to learn into perspective, it reminded us that what we were learning wasn't just a job and was certainly no game, it could/would save our lives one day.
There was nothing "PC" or "Kind" in those words or that thought, but it was damned sure one of the best things that could have been said to us at the beginning and set us on the right foot.
I've read Fate of the Hunter and a couple of other books like that and could not agree more that they should be required reading material, but feel they won't be as it'll scare too many students.