Yes. He has a point. Engineering can be simple and enjoyable. But it isn't. It is not worth the while to study Engineering any more. Do not waste your time.
Study: U.S. Losing Ground in Education
http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Education-Compared.html
Personally I think the root of the problem is found in modern public schools, where teachers who have math phobia pass it along to students, along with inflated self-esteem.
The symptom can be found among students who take science classes and constantly complain that it should not require any math-- students should be required to do math only in math classes.
A ping for 'the boy'.
I started out in engineering. Was as out of water as a liberal in a gun shop. All that beer didn't help, either.
Ended up switching to Geology. A science where an acceptable error margin is plus or minus 20 million years was more up my alley.
You cannot generally go from highschool math and science to college engineering, math, or science unless you have been studying math, science, and engineering on your own and making significant progress while taking the trivial highschool classes and doing their trivial homework. Especially math. Be already good at calculus when you start college.