the loss of freedom to fail

I just watched Michael Goodwin's' video on The Loss of Freedom to Fail and the part of his video that I can most easily identify with is his statement that loosing the freedom to fail takes away the opportunity to succeed. This statement is true and apparent in my counties' school system. Students who are struggling with the work and choosing not to do it are making passing grades and students who have no problem with the work see that there is no point in working harder when they will receive nothing more for the extra effort. I live in a small town and grew up knowing most of the students who are in my graduating class. The guy who sat next to me in preschool still sits next to me now in Pre-Calculus. We will say his name is John. Sometime during middle school John missed a lot of school and never caught up on his work so he stopped understanding and stopped doing the new assignments. However, John did manage to pass, only to attend harder classes the next year and again manage to pass through social promotion. Now in high school John sleeps through most of his classes and only wakes up to copy someones homework or to cheat on a test. He was never threatened with failure so he never saw a need to work harder and now does not have an opportunity to succeed. He will most likely graduate high school but any attempt at a college degree would be futile. This is senior year and everyone is so busy deciding what paths to take in life and what to do to get there, while still trying to maintain their grades in high school. This is when the rest of us begin to notice John who is asleep when we are trying to copy down notes and get a head start on homework. The other students realize that John has not done much work in a long time but is still doing well in most classes and and will most likely graduate. With this in mind the attitude of the whole student body begins to change to this; why should we slave over hours of homework every night or even pay attention in class when my diploma will not be worth any more than his? By taking away the freedom to fail in my school system the educators have unconsciously created a contagious attitude of disregard for the curriculum. I am afraid that if we stay along this path then success will never mean anything, entrepreneurship and inventiveness will cease to exist and words like those of Neil Armstrong " one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind", will never have a chance to be personified in future generations.