Compassionate failure

There is a review in the New York Times of the book In the Basement of the Ivory Tower that is worth reading. The book is a memoir of a part-time non-tenured faculty member at a community college in the USA. It argues not every American child is cut out for a college education. It makes the case, on compassionate grounds, that admitting fewer students and failing more is actually the best thing for the students themselves.
On a somewhat related theme see my earlier post Want to improve student learning? Then fail more students!