By Susan O'Doherty. Two friends have recently brought my attention to these articles, which explore some of the ways race and socioeconomic status can affect our experiences and thus our worldview. One could make a convincing argument that the "privilege" of receiving light penalties for serious mistakes is anything but a character builder. Kids whose parents bail them out of every scrape tend to become self-centered, irresponsible adults without a strong grasp of cause and effect. One could even speculate that some of the ignorant white teenagers in the first article might benefit from firsthand experience of the consequences of shopping, driving or walking while black, if only to sensitize them to all the behavior they, as members of a privileged class, routinely get away with. Read more...

By Graeme Paton. Top universities are secretly admitting poor students with lower entry grades amid growing political pressure to boost access to higher education, a report has suggested.
Rising numbers of institutions are cutting entry requirements at the last minute to allow students who “miss their target grades” to get a place, it emerged.
Researchers found that only a minority of universities make lower “upfront” offers to teenagers from deprived backgrounds in advance, instead choosing to “reassess” these students if they fall short of entry grades after A-level results are published. More...