"school of hard knocks" how does it translate?
I have been writing in Spanish trying to get better at it. Normally I'd just go to the translator and type in my phrase. However, for "School of hard knocks it translated "escuela de la vida". before using the translator, I put together escuela de duros golpes" on my own with a spanish book. SO.... help me forum please. How would I say that 
Thanx
2 Answers
Hi lilwar id, as this is a figure of speech it can be said many ways. Both escuela de la vida and your translation should be fine. I don't know if escuela de la vida is pervasive enough to be understood without very good context though. For example, life lessons in English doesn't seem to be as specific as the painful lessons you get from "the school of hard knocks."
Rather than letting you take my opinion I'll direct you to wordreference.com.
The discussion seems to repudiate the idea that "Violencia en las aulas" would work, but the two translations you've given seem to be acceptable.
The "school of hard knocks" has nothing to do with violence in the class/school system. On the contrary, it refers to the education/lessons received outside of an academic environment. The (possibly painful) lessons learned in life, as opposed to those learned in the "pampered" school setting. The notion being that in "real life" if you make mistakes, you suffer the consequences and they are real consequences (poverty, illness, imprisonment, etc.) not the "token" punishments of the academic world (a bad grade).
