165 words on Uni
Among the students whom I teach and whose work I mark are two who are not only older than me but also have family and children to look after. They're not among the strongest students, but they seem a bit more motivated and serious about what they're doing than the average. It's a bit of a question to which extent it's reasonable to take into account that they've probably got plenty of other worries besides their studies.
On the one hand I like to think that all I do there is about teaching and marking mathematics – regardless of the person. At the end of the day people will get a degree for their work and not for being nice. On the other hand, though, they don't seem worse at mathematics than some of the other students – just not as good at playing the system in their favour (copying work and stuff... don't ask) perhaps, so it would be mean to punish them for that.