In Praise Of The F Word Analysis

Schooling Should Lead to Learning and Future Success
In her article “In Praise of the ‘F’ Word,” Mary Sherry argues that flunking students instead of giving them a free pass is an encouraging teaching tool. She writes that high school diplomas are meaningless due to the unemployment those students will face. As a teacher, she hears from her students that they lack the skills employers are looking for. Those students are dissatisfied with the situation they are in and feel cheated out of an education. Sherry writes that her son benefited from a fail or pass approach and agrees with his teacher’s method. She concludes that a flunking policy creates opportunities for success (421-22). I agree with the author’s view that the easy way out taken

Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary and Thesaurus defines learning as knowledge or skill acquired by instruction or study (“Learning”). Thus, passing students who did not acquire skills or knowledge means that learning did not take place. Failing such students should teach them to make an effort to learn; it should educate them on what they were meant to learn through the means of repeating the course or by alerting them to make more effort in preparing their future assignments. John Dewey, the American Philosopher, believed that “education should mean the total development of the child” (“Education and personal growth” 1A). Therefore, we may deduce that teachers who fail to educate by simply passing students limit their development. Teachers who fail students and push them to repeat courses are not uncaring; conversely, they want their students to gain the knowledge they are entitled to. According to an article from U.S. News and World Report, there is a chain of consequences for “free passing” students: “And is there any doubt that, as we ask our colleges to repeat what students should have learned in high school, the value of a college degree will also decline? Seventeen years of education is now the norm (assuming completion of a college degree in four years)” (Harrigan, Davies). For that reason, staying behind in order

I have personally witnessed that a high school diploma has little value in a job market. After receiving my high school diploma I had difficulties finding a job; employers were looking for trainings, certificates, and experiences. It took me two months to find a job that did not require cleaning bathrooms or flipping burgers in a swelter of a fast-food kitchen. I was lucky to find an employer who was willing to provide training and did not require prior experience. I received required training on the job and worked up to a promotion. My friend, on the other hand, was not so lucky. While I worked hard towards my diploma, she did not and consequently was not able to hold any job for longer than a month. Thinking back to our high school days, I recall how she would tear up in front of our teachers in order to pass many assignments. She used the same tactic to get the things that she wanted from her parents. She always had a tear for everything along with some kind of histrionic story to enhance the emotional appeal. However, those skills became useless when she entered a job market. Her high school diploma lost value when her numerous employers have recognized that she lacks basic skills they were expecting her to have. Also, I have witnessed how newly hired employees suffer from the lack of skills they have