Marry Sherry's 'In Praise Of The F Word'

Flunk means to fail to reach standards; students, parents and teachers think it’s a bad thing, but is it really? Instead of thinking the negative of repeating a grade or class, people should see this as practice and becoming successful. Many students may not understand the material and making them retake it will improve their knowledge. In Mary Sherry’s essay, she talks about how teachers and parents should show that flunking is a positive teaching tool. I agree with her because we aren’t all perfect and sometimes we need that extra lesson or we need to repeat the material again.

In Perez’s article, Want To Get Into College? Learn to Fail [ Feb. 12, 2012], failure is the most significant, but hurtful step towards a successful life. If a person has never honestly dealt with failure, how can they possibly ever improve or move forward? It is important to learn and be able to solve problems in society, whether it is for academic or not. If failure is a result of taking a risk, going into an unknown and confusing situation will be the most likeliest place to be. A person who always go into the “safe” path will result in a predictable outcomes but no improvement. Not facing the dangerous path will only lead to the “what if’s”.

Emotional, ethical, and logical appeals are all methods used in writing to perused you one way or another on various topics. Mike Rose used all of these techniques in this essay, to show how student who are pushed aside, distracted, or fall behind and fail. In this essay Rose describes that students who have teachers who are unprepared, or incompetent majorly contribute to student failure. He is trying to show that many children have potential that is overlooked or sometimes even ignored, by authority.

H. L. Mencken wrote “the average man does not want to be free. He simply wants to be safe.” I agree with this quote because of the deeper meaning it has behind it. In today’s society, people do not seem to have ambitions or dreams that they want to pursue. A lot of people settle with a job that pays just enough to make a living or they do not go beyond their limits to get a higher education to be able to make more money. These people are overcome by fear. They are afraid to continue moving forward and taking risks.

A lot of students who fail a class or get a subpar grade tend to beat themselves up and sulk over their failure. If a student fails a class, the student shouldn’t let the failure determine or define their future in that certain subject or class. What will define the student is their comeback after failure, this is what will determine their success. When applying for a college, the student is to remember their success after failure. In the article, “Want to get into college? Learn to fail.” By Angel B. Perez, the author explains how a student gained his attention through the honesty the student provided when asked what he expects to learn or experience in college. The student answered with, “I look forward to the possibility of failure.” Failure

Countless psychological studies show the truth: hope, dreams, and goals are the psychological vehicles driving success. In Of Mice and Men, the dream is to leave the life of work and travel behind and live on a ranch, in War Dance, the goal is to do well at the national music competition, and in The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Walter Mitty hopes for a more interesting life in a series of daydreams, to ultimately find that he has been living the true daydream. Hope, dreams, and goals allowed the people portrayed, fictional or not, to strive for more. Hopes, dreams, and goals allow people to increase their motivation, perform better, and seek new concepts.

In life we tend to see failure as a terrible thing. When we do fail, most of the time we

“Conquering the Freshman Fear of Failure” an article written by David L Kirp is a piece that illustrates the link between fear and doing bad in school. David Kirp writes about the psychological result of giving students an environment where they will set themselves up for failure. He tries to promote the scientific study where it mentions that intellect and genetics have very little correlation. Kirp believes when you put students in a discouraging environment and plant failure in their minds, nothing can be achieved.

The satisfaction you feel when you are successful always doesn't come easy sometimes you need to fail in order to know what the true joy of being successful feels like. In the essay The Right to Fail written by an American critic William Zinsser, he states “Don't be afraid to fail!” “The right to fail is one of the few freedoms that the country does not grant its citizens.” Zinsser depicts the rich truth that you can fail, you can get back up and try again. You do not need to fear failure everyone makes mistakes and in America that is acceptable and understandable. According to a Gallup survey more than 3 million American college students would serve VISTA in some capacity of given the opportunity. Americans volunteer to help with the

In the article, “In Praise of the F Word” Mary Sherry argues that flunking students is a method that has been effective in the past and is still effective todays day, and anyone needs to see is as a positive teaching tool. Sherry indicates that flunking students is a method that motivates students to study more and to be more responsible for what is their responsibility. Students challenge is not to get an A or B, but to succeed or to fail. Being in front of this challenge students try to work harder in order to succeed. In the article, Sherry uses pieces of evidence from her personal experience and examples to support her thesis. Also, her article is well-organized, and Sherry uses an academic language. However, Sherry do not consider many aspects that might affect students. She gives to much importance the example that she gives with her son. But can only a person represent all students? As a result, her argument is not convincing, and her try to persuade her audience fails.

In the article “Failure to Rescue” the author Atul Gawande argues that failure gives an individual a chance to rescue themselves from defeat and prosper. If a person fails they should not dwell on the past and become crippled by failure, they should continue to take risks because in order to see advancements, in anything, they must first take a chance.

In Carl Singleton’s article, “What Our Education System Needs is More F’s,” he argues that students aren’t receiving the failing grades they deserve. School systems are to blame for the lack of quality in America’s education. No other recommendation for improvement will succeed. The only way to fix the American education system is to fail more students. According to Singleton, the real root of the issue is with the parents. Since the parents believe their children are passing, they don’t take an interest in their child’s studies. They allow the child to spend little time on homework and more time on other activities, such as watching television. When a child comes home with an F, then the parents will take notice. Only then will parents take an active role in their child’s education, instead of letting the schools do it all. The schools are failing the students by giving them passing grades they don’t deserve. Singleton doesn’t believe an increase in salary or a merit raise will improve the situation. The only solution is to fail students who do not master the material. Only then will parents take notice in their children’s education and will school boards take notice, since holding a child back and having them repeat a grade cost twice as much as passing them on to the next grade.

The essay “In Praise of the ‘F’ Word” by Mary Sherry explains some flaws Sherry has noticed in our education system. These observations are from her teaching perspective, and from her son’s own experience in high school. Sherry claims that some students that have earned a high school degree should not have because they are “semi literate.” She starts out her essay by stating this bluntly, but further explains herself as it goes on.

One of the history's greatest figures, Nelson Mandela, once said: “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.” Over the course of years, this statement has only become more relevant. Maybe that is the reason why the topic of the decline of the American education has been recently spurring such a heated debate among national academic and teaching communities. In “The Chronicle of Higher Education”, Carl Singleton, a faculty member at Fort Hays State University, also presented his reflections concerning the U.S. education system.

Success can mean many things to many different people. Being successful means to reach all of the goals that are set ahead. Every person is different, and that means that each person sees success differently. To some people being successful could be as simple as getting out of bed or getting to work on time. Success is found in all goals that are accomplished no matter how small or large that they are. Being successful doesn 't always mean that one must accomplish goals that are hard. To others it could be marrying the person they love. To be happy with that person for the rest of their life is a big success. Being successful at an educational standpoint would be graduating college with a degree in a future career. The degree would start the person on a path to becoming who they have always wanted to be. There is no limit on being successful. People have chances to be successful each and every day. What it means to be successful is to overcome hardships, to not allow negativity keep you from trying, and to never give up on a goal.