I agree with so much of what you posted. The fact that he was insubordinate to his professors (not answering when addressed in class, etc.) and many of his fellow classmates refused to attend class because of him boggles my mind. When I was in college, the Prof was the authority in the class - one answered him/her when addressed and anything like insubordination by the students wasn’t dealt with kindly. And this was back in the 80’s, not so long ago. I was in grad school in 89 and a couple of students were chatting during the class and the Prof threw them out after warning them once.
I can’t understand why they coddled him so much (from what I read and heard, he was coddled an often lot for an adult)especially in college. College must have changed drastically since I was a student.
Yes, it has changed drastically.
Students ROUTINELY march into professor’s offices to demand that any grades lower than B get changed now.
The reality is ALL evaluation systems gradually inflate over time. Same thing has happened in the US military fitness reports; basically, ANYTHING other than perfect on ANY aspect of them means you can’t get promoted.
And in the humanities and social sciences anything other than near perfect grades can really kill chances of someone geting into a halfway decent grad school.