"They tried to protect him from pain"

Actually, no, they tried to pretend there was no pain. "How could those other kids be making fun of your ears when your ears aren't big?" Essentially they were Gaslighting their son. "Your perceptions and those of the other kids are completely against reality: your ears aren't big."

Your recommendation is just as bad. "So what if you have big ears, those kids have no business making fun of them because they could have made fun of so much else, like Bobby's big nose and Susie's lazy eye."

In other words: "You shouldn't feel hurt by these kids. You need to learn to not feel that way."

I have a suggestion. How about the parents acknowledge the child's hurt? "Oh, honey, it's so awful to have some kids picking on you. That must feel so terrible."

My parents, like young David's parents, denied that there was any pain, denied that anyone could possibly be picking on me, denied that being picked on could hurt or that it mattered if it did. None of this denial helped me deal with it in the slightest. What I needed to know was that I was a precious and valuable human being--the opposite of the message that my bullies were giving me, that I was worthless scum whose only purpose in life was to be kicked and spat upon by the worthy and important kids.

To be told I was scum needed to be contradicted by my parents, as well. That they denied everything that was happening to me, right down to my hurt feelings, did nothing to help me, but left me adrift in an ocean of hurt with no life preserver.

There are probably those who would say that Prager did acknowledge his son's pain, because they see an implied message, "[Sure it hurts but] so what?" and I would love to know how that worked for others as well. I can't see it, myself, but I'm willing to learn.