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In many countries, the United States included, students’ economic backgrounds often determine the quality of the education they receive. Richer students tend to go to schools funded by high property taxes , with top-notch facilities and staff that help them succeed. In districts where poorer students live, students often get shoddy facilities, out-of-date textbooks, and fewer guidance counselors. [For more of this story, written by Alana Semuels, go to ...

The bitches, as Shannon saw it, came in three varieties. She categorized them on her personal blog, in a post titled “Beware the Female BigLaw Partner.” First was the “aggressive bitch”—a certain kind of high-ranking woman at the firm where she worked who didn’t think twice about “verbally assaulting anyone.” When one such partner’s name appeared on caller ID, Shannon told me, “we would just freak out.” Next was the two-faced “passive-aggressive bitch,” whose “subtle, semi-rude emails”...

When patients are discharged from hospitals, it usually means they’ve recovered sufficiently to resume their daily lives. But that’s not the case for patients released from psychiatric facilities. According to a new meta-analysis in JAMA Psychiatry: [For more of this story, written by Sushmita Pathak, go to http://www.ozy.com/acumen/the-risk-that-survives-a-psych-ward-stay/79215]

[For more of this story, by Eli Dreyfus and Eve Asher, go to https://www.newyorker.com/humor/daily-shouts/getting-some-shut-eye-with-anxiety-and-depression]

When the Vietnam War ended in 1975, my family immigrated to the United States as refugees. With little else but their clothes in a hobo bag—my grandmother, grandfather, and all seven of their living children—got on a plane, landed in Honolulu, and then arrived in Yakima, Washington. Their destination was the American dream. The freedom from communism and the livelihood of a better life far from war and its effects. [For more of this story, written by Tina Semko, go to ...

Parents of children with autism experience a greater impact from their child's therapy than once thought, according to new research out of York University's Faculty of Health. Jonathan Weiss, Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology, Faculty of Health and CIHR Chair in Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) Treatment and Care Research, discovered that parents who participate in cognitive therapy with their children with autism also experience a real benefit that improves the family...

Steve Mallen thinks the signs first started to show when his son stopped playing the piano. Edward, then 18, was a gifted musician and had long since passed his Grade 8 exams, a series of advanced piano tests. Playing had been a passion for most of his life. But as adulthood beckoned, the boy had never been busier. He had won a place to study geography at the University of Cambridge and was reviewing hard for his final exams. At his school, Edward was head boy and popular among pupils and...

For better or worse, California likes to decide drug policy at the ballot box. Voters have already approved marijuana legalization, but criminal sanctions against users of heroin, cocaine and other drugs are very much intact, though they’ve been moving in a more lenient direction. It would not be surprising to see a proposition entirely eliminating criminal penalties for drug possession in the near future. The removal of criminal penalties for drug possession — which is very different from...

Today, July 31, we acknowledge "Equal Pay Day" for Black women in this country, a day that marks the number of days into the next year that Black women on average would need to work to earn the same amount their white male counterparts made in the year prior. Black women make only 63 cents on average for every dollar a white man is paid. This may not seem like a significant difference, but 37 cents on each dollar earned adds up to a devastating economic disadvantage for Black women and their...

Did you know that when we say a child has an attachment disorder, it is often not the whole picture? It is only one part of a seven-piece jigsaw puzzle called ‘developmental trauma’. By putting together the puzzle, we can understand how a child’s adverse childhood experiences have shaped their emotional world and outward behaviour. Once we understand this, we can then work with a child to help them with their developmental trauma using an innovative therapeutic approach called the...

To all the parents who are worried that my son is in their child’s class: I heard through our mutual friend that you were asking whether my son is in the same class as your child. I wondered why my phone wasn’t blowing up with the “whose class is he in?” messages, as it often has after report cards and class assignments arrive in the mail. I certainly don’t mind my phone being quiet. But I do mind that you were asking other people instead of me. [For more of this story, written by Amanda...

When Malik Wade closes his eyes, it often has little to do with sleep. Instead, the San Francisco native visualizes an extraordinary world, one where the less fortunate succeed despite overwhelming odds, where impoverished urban youth recognize and push past the countless traps society sets for them, and where he rises from the smoldering ashes of his own destruction to erect an inspiring new existence for himself and the larger community. [For more of this story, written by D. Amari...