[Balgair]

I agree completely. However, when designing a new surgical technique or a better mouse-trap you have to be able to do it in nearly ANY environment. Your job, profession, or avocation is not going to coddle you at all, most likely. If you can't learn calculus in a lecture, then you should recognize this and learn how you are going to learn it, then learn it and pass the test. If you cannot, then (under this more brutal theory) you are unlikely to do so when it really counts.

Also, many many kids are unfit for STEM fields, Law or Medical school, yet go into school as if they are[0]. The cutting has to occur for the good of society and the students themselves.

My '5A: Intro To Physics' course was notorious for the cutting. The attrition rate was 90%. This was intentional. If you could not contend with the bad grades, the stress, the material, and the work in that class then you were out. Better now than in 3 years. My graduating class year was about 7000 people, of which 20 were in physics, a rate of 0.3%.

[0]http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2013/07/08/math-science-popul...