Comment by anonymouskimmer

Yours is a good point, but I can't leave this without comment. The sociological structure in which the actions are taken matter too. This student might have been fine in another educational structure (such as an apprenticeship, or however it was people learned in paleo- and neolithic times).

After dropping out a couple of times I found college was a lot easier as an adult. Not because I had grown, I don't think. But possibly because I had learned elsewhere, which made the courses easier, and definitely because I stopped caring as much.