In Praise Of The F Word By Mary Sherry Analysis

In the passage “In praise of the F Word”, the author makes some really great points about education and failing. Throughout the passage, Mary Sherry criticizes the way teachers teach. She says students aren't really learning or earning their diplomas that are being given to them at the end of their senior year. The author states that a way to get students to actually learn and change the meaning of their certificates that they're being handed is to put the fear of failure in them. Having students engage in one-on-one conferences with a teacher, could be a way to create awareness that the student is failing. Whether the teacher breaks down the overall grade into different sections (quiz, tests, assessments, etc) or just shows them the final course grade. With the student being shown that they have the possibility of failing they’ll have more ambition to fix what needs to be corrected.

Why should we let our kids fail? In Mary Sherry’s article, "In Praise of the F Word," she asserts that students should not be held back in school because of the stigma associated with a failing grade. We need to help kids develop an appreciation for progress over time, rather than immediate wins or losses. We should let kids fail to help them overcome more difficult challenges that they might face in their futures because it allows them to learn lessons, succeed in school, and focus in school.

Julie Lythcott-Haims explains to us all what a perfect child is; straight A student, fabulous test scores, gets homework done without parents asking them to do it… She has the right idea, the right mindset of a parent, every parent wants their child to succeed in life. The way that parents are parenting their children is messing them up. They don’t have a chance to become themselves, they are too focused on whether they did good on that test that they were stressing about for a week, they are too worried about getting the best grade to be able to get accepted into the biggest name colleges around. The parents become too consumed with hovering over their children making sure that they are doing flawlessly in school, the parents are directing their every single move they make. The children then began to think that their parents love comes from the good grades. Then they start making this checklist; Good grades, what they want to be when they grow up, get accepted into good colleges, great SAT scores, the right GPA, the jock of the sports team.

A bold title from a promising author was what persuaded me to pick “Still Needing the F Word” by Anna Quindlen. I am familiar with her work, her commencement speech at Mount Holyoke College being my latest read. As usual, she didn’t disappoint. Throughout this essay, her use of sardonic language cannot be ignored as she touches on deeper issues within our, contrary to popular belief, “pre-feminist” world. As she mocks the world’s oversensitivity towards the use of the “F-Word,” Feminist (if you were wondering), she analyzes the status of women’s rights in modern times through the lens of a study on female undergraduates at Duke University. Now instead of stressing to be the “perfect homemaker,” women must obsess over “being the perfect professional,”

Many students go through their academic career struggling to balance school and personal life while maintaining focus in the classroom. In the passage, “In the Praise of the ‘F’ Word,” Mary Sherry argues that the only way for unfocused students to become motivated in their academics is for teachers to threaten them with a failing grade. We should disagree with the author because many students struggle with obligations outside of school, personal problems, and family responsibilities. Therefore, many students would not improve their studies once they receive a failing grade, but instead, become overwhelmed with failing and attempting to balance numerous other responsibilities.

Bruni quotes the President of the National Center on Education, Marc Tucker, “ Our students have an inflated sense of their academic prowess.They don’t expect to spend much time studying, but they confidently expect good grades and marketable degrees”(par.25). From a young age we need to teach these children you succeed from hard work. Many parents have been exempting their children from test and are expecting them to learn? In order for kids to be able to learn what they need to, parents need to allow them to deal with the difficult times.

The “F” word stands for Failure. Failure is when kids don’t work to pass a class. The article talks about how teachers should use failure as a tool in the class to gain students’ attention. Teachers normally don’t threaten to fail students, but if they did then students would be motivated to get their work done on time. In my opinion, the teachers should use this tool to keep the class on track omit they are more than likely not to fail.

Throughout the years failing has been seen as a way to defeat or put down a child or a student's moral. In the article “In praise of the ‘F’ word” by Mary Sherry, the author exhibits the fact that failing students should be seen as a positive idea in order to push kids to expel. Although some readers may argue that failing has a negative effect on a child's psychological development, many can argue that in order to develop a competent workforce, a more literate America, and push kids to excel in school failing should be seen as an affirmative idea.

In “In Praise of the F Word” Mary Sherry focuses not on how the difficulties that the students have to face affect their performance in school, but how the “fear of failure” compels them to work. Sherry believes that diplomas are meaningless; because most passing students did not master the work. Additionally, some high school graduates told her that they do not even know how they get the diplomas. She believes that the fluning policy is “an expression of confidence by both parents and teachers” (Sherry 560).And we should give the students the choice to be success or fail. Sherry falsely assumes that flunking a student will make the students perform better at school.

With this statement, comes the idea that the educational system has cheated these students. Sherry quotes some of her students that she has had in her adult-literacy programs concerning their wishes that someone would have made them work hard during high school. The author then provides an example of the time a teacher made her own son work by threatening to flunk him. She makes sure to address that students can rise above their own problems if they are pushed with the threat of failure. Sherry concludes that the threat of flunking should be used regularly as a positive teaching tool to both, push students and prevent those from moving on when they are not

While failing students may work for a portion of them, that does not mean it will works for all. In the article “In Praise of The F Word”, Michelle Sherry, a teacher and published author references the positives of failing students. One flaw she made was ignoring the negatives of failing students. In this upcoming quote, Sherry argues that failing students motivates and helps students rise above their classroom behaviors. She also argues that the only way to get students to work hard is to throw “the trump card of failure” at them. Sherry “most kids don't put school first on their list unless they perceive something is at stake.” In simpler terms, she’s assuming that students are not at their best unless threatened by the “F” word which is

Billy studied day and night for his biology exam hoping he would get the best grade he could get. When he got his test back he saw a big red f on the top. Some might argue that Billy didn't the material and that he deserved the F. Billy knew the material but he isn't a good test taker, now, Billy has to retake the class because he failed the exam. If teachers gave students gave students more F’s the F’s would decrease students motivation and American eduction would not benefit.

In the article “In Praise of the F word”, Mary Sherry states students need to take responsibility in their education. Personally, as a student taking responsibility for your education means completing my assignments, studying and acing all my tests. The ability to succeed in life is a valuable gift and many people take advantage of their chance. I can relate to this because in high school I was very lazy and never took school seriously until end of junior year. Once I put motivation into my classes, I got back on track.

In Sherry’s essay, “In Praise of the F Word”,” She has made a good argument. Sherry “suggested that the only way to make students to work hard is to throw the undermine card of failure at the students.” According to Sherry, “teacher often pass student even when students don’t deserve to the passing grade.” This kind of dishonest behavior from teaches “doom” the students from getting a good job for the rest of their life. “She also criticizes the teachers for not giving the students an “F” when they are not doing their work. She implies that most kids in school don’t do their work, unless you let know what would happen if they are not doing their homework. Throughout the argument, she is trying to encourage the teacher to do the right

One major problem in the student body today is the lack of motivation kids have in their schoolwork. The most effective way to keep them motivated is an inner motivation within themselves, or an interior motivation, rather than parents and teachers pushing them to do their best, or an exterior motivation. The best ways to do this is to make learning fun and interesting (not boring), and to help them understand why they will need the skills they are learning are for.