[berdon]

While I agree with your sentiments, the rude awakening won't occur in college/university as these institutes are also softening their grading and programs. The rude awakening will occur in life when they realize what they missed.

[UberFly]

I wish there would be a rude awakening, but for so many they will just attribute their failings to everything but themselves and there will be many who enable them.

[npteljes]

I think the same. Not knowing things will just lead to confusion, and confused and frustrated people are easier to manipulate. An awakening would do good in this situation, but the more disconnected they are, the less likely it would happen.

[SoftTalker]

Yes in fact this soft grading trend started in the universities at least based on what I've observed. The last thing a modern university wants is for students to flunk out and lose that tuition revenue. They bend over backwards to keep them in school.

[red-iron-pine]

Maybe on the online degree, or puffed of MBA level, but I saw more than a few undergrads flunk out in the past couple of years. I live near a big Uni in Canada, and have previously lived near large state schools in the US, and I can't see this softening.

Maybe in the gen-ed soft science stuff like English or History, but math is math; you either get an answer or you don't. Ditto for many engineering / STEM fields -- the code compiles and runs, or doesn't; nothing to soften.