I know a few men pretty well who are brilliant, but don't like doing any work unless they understand why they are doing it. They didn't ever do well in school, but they are fabulous farmers, mechanics, fishermen, etc. They do a lot of grunt work in these jobs and they do it without complaining and they all have at least adequate self-discipline. They just didn't like school work. Not every brilliant person needs to go to college.
And some colleges are better suited to people who balk at useless tasks than others. Virginia Tech is not one of those, apparently. There are many great schools where there is more flexibility. They key is to try to find a good fit and to know that sometimes that means finding what your child needs outside of the 4 year college system.
