You don't really understand something until you feel it

Let's take a look at a basic example: You don't want your kid to touch the stove because you know it's going to burn him, it's kind of hard to explain the concept of getting burned to a little child who didn't experienced that before, so naturally if just tell him not to touch the stove and he doesn't listen, you may yell at him and if needed beat him (in a parental way of course). The idea is that even if you keep the kid away from the stove as long as possible it would still come to a point when he will eventually touch it and only then he will understand why he wasn't allowed to touch it, he will feel the pain. This example is kind of weird but the point is that you don't really learn something until you experience it, you know the fire is wrong because you've been told so, but only when you feel the plain you understand the reason you weren't allowed to touch the stove in the first place, at least as a child.. eh, am I making any sense here ?