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 school, there are always those who do not understand the content in class, but get by with passing grades. In Mary Sherry’s essay, “In Praise of the F Word”, she writes about how in the American school system students get passed along without any consideration for their pace or skill level (Sherry, 564-566). Sherry also discusses how unprepared the American public is after high school and college (Sherry, 564). In, “In Praise of the F word”, Sherry also discusses her own son and one of his experiences in his high school (Sherry, 565). The content of “In Praise of the F word” was very persuasive, as Sherry effectively utilizes the aristotelian appeals. She uses ethos effectively to build trust in her message. The ethos or trust built in Sherry was effective in persuading the audience about her credibility. The examples used in Sherry’s essay relate to her own experience with the topics on hand. The
In the article “Want To Get Into College? Learn To Fail” by Angel B. Perez the main idea was that colleges want to know the real you,the imperfect you not the just the great things you’ve accomplished over the year ,but also the failure you had to overcome. The reason why they want to know this is to see if you can overcome failing a class or two just to how you can you handle this, because life is not easy and healthy,family and money sometimes can get in the way of things but the goal is to make you succeed.
In “Want To Get Into College? Learn to fail” (2012), Angel B. Pérez ,Vice President and Dean of Admission and Financial Aid at Pitzer College, argues that students are not okay with failing and are pressured to only show their success, Perez believes that this problem exist because teachers and parents taught them to only show their success and not to show their flaws.Perez supports his argument with his own personal experience .Perez supports his argument with “I wish I could tell you this is an uncommon story, but kids all over the world admit they are under tremendous pressure to be perfect,” (pg. 1) Perez second piece of evidence is “Students are usually in shock when I chuckle and tell them I never expect perfection.”Perez final piece
Levine claims that these children are looking up to gang members and drug dealers as a way of life, knowing that their are no educational requirements to fulfill these positions (20). These poor students are simply seeing school as a must do for the time being, and not seeing the the value of the education they could be receiving if they had a better role model to look up to. Similarly, Graff asserts that students are not connecting with Shakespeare or the French Revolution, these students do not value the information because it does not pertain to them; However, sports, fashion or dating interests these students and have values to them (245). Schools and colleges are not connecting the dots. The values they set into the education system no longer interest students. The students are, however, finding that they can look up to those who did not apply themselves to education, and are getting the wrong concept of
Have you ever thought of the fear of failure as being something to motivate people? There are many ways to motivate people but one of the effective ways discussed in “In Praise of the F word” by Marry Sherry is the fear of failure. The best way to motivate people or students is by the fear of failure because they will try their best and it would be used as a motivator to reach their goals.
Having never taken a college writing course before, I did not know what to expect and therefore assumed that I would choose my own topic to write about; of course, this isn’t the case. However, if I had the choice, I would not have chosen to write a response to Gerald Graff’s “Hidden Intellectualism”. After going through his essay with a fine-tooth comb, I have found a few flaws in his reasoning. Gerald Graff believes that schools and colleges are not taking advantage of “street smarts” by not using them in an intellectual setting when in fact, schools are providing students with a large assortment of other knowledge and skills. In Graff’s essay “Hidden Intellectualism”, he argues for the importance of changing school curriculums in order to better reflect the interests
Would you be happy if you had received an A in your class? Do you feel that you truly learned enough to deserve that perfect A? Students who are in either high school or college are forgetting the true meaning of having knowledge and being able to learn. People think that how well they perform in the classroom will justify how well the teacher teaches their students but necessary that might not always be that way. In Brent Staples piece, “Why Colleges Shower their Students with A’s”, he argues that there must be an end to the grade Inflation and continues by examining for a possible solution by using language techniques to emphasize the main point. He mentions, “Some departments shower students with A’s to fill poorly attended courses that might otherwise be canceled” (Staples 1065). Staples piece comes across as formal, but also has a purpose of the making both a precise idea and credible point to his readers that they might be effected as well as colleges that the essay refers to. Staple focuses
Neil Postman and Wendell Berry state that twentieth-century Americans are losing literacy and the ability to read and write, which weakens our ability to think for ourselves. Reading, writing, and thinking are connected through everyday life and as English speakers, it is our responsibility to preserve and correctly exercise the truth and validity of the English language. With the dependency on technology, relaxed educational standards, and even potential government control, we become stripped of our independence of thinking. With no free will to think, we are vulnerable to dominance and corruption, inability to argue complexly, oversimplification, and conformity.
“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.
Murry discusses the need for students to learn the core essentials of American culture, history, and language. These essentials should begin to be taught early on in a student's elementary education. Beginning to educate younger students as soon as kindergarten is an advantage because smaller children find learning more enjoyable than older students will. Murray argues that college shouldn't be necessary to be literate. A kindergarten through twelfth-grade education should be able to teach the students everything they need to be a literate American. College is great but education systems shouldn't wait until college to finish teaching the students what they need to be literate Americans within society. Murray creates a good argument for teaching the core essentials in K-12 curriculum. A high school diploma should set a person up to be a productive person in society nothing more, nothing less. College should be a choice but not something that everyone has to obtain to be successful. Granted different people define success
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 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.
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.
There has been a multitude of famous individuals that have changed the course of human history over the years. With their work being the source of inspiration of many to simply having a likeable, repeatable demeanor, there is no doubt that to be regarded in that special collective of individuals. One of the most famous civil rights leader that advocated for 13 years, Martin Luther King Jr., discertation called, “The Purpose of Education,” that brings awareness to the importance of education and its overall relevance in tepid year of 1947. Dr. King brings clarity to his opinion in the beginning of his paragraph stating, “It seems to me that education has a two-fold function to perform in the life of man and in society: the one is utility and