Mary Sherry In Praise Of The F Word Summary

Schools frequently cite a variety of social problems like poverty, broken homes, and bad parenting as excuses for their own poor performance (Greene, 289). In the article of The Myth of Helplessness it touches on a few reasons why it is believed that some schools have great reviews and others don’t. Greene talks about what others believe helps the school systems and what is believed that causes students to fail in school. I agree with author Jay P. Greene that, yes poverty, broken homes and other social problems pose a significant challenge but the evidence simply does not leave room for the conclusion that these challenges are insurmountable (290).

Mary Sherry, who is both a mother and a teacher, shares from her life experience, a revealing reality in the educational system. She goes on to share how this experience has impacted her view of how students can be better motivated to learn. The title of the piece, "In Praise of the F Word", is a great title that catches the readers' attention and leads to a final revelation that leaves the reader both disturbed and in the case of this reader, delighted that there are teachers who recognize the shortfall of an education that moves students through the system without insuring that students have actually learned the skills that were taught.

Edition English textbook talks about the right to fail and taking chances. Zinsser makes the point that sometimes one has to fail to succeed. He talks about how the word “dropout” is looked down upon, but to him, it is a chance to learn from people’s mistakes. Zinsser makes a point that advertisements and TV commercials try to push the idea of material success. Although, people should not fail just for the fun of it, he states “I only mean that failure isn’t bad in itself, or success automatically good.”

In his speech, “Remarks by the President in a National Address to America’s Schoolchildren,” Obama effectively argues his claim, that kids should go to school and try very hard to succeed to schoolchildren around the U.S. He effectively argues his claim because he uses supporting details and stories of students that have undergone tough situations, but still overcame those obstacles to succeed and school. Also, he is trying to tell kids that they should do well in school to get a good job and make a difference. He also uses rhetorical appeals to help with the supporting details. One of supporting evidence that he brought up was that if someone wants to become something such as a doctor, or lawyer you will need a good education to do

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.

In the article of “Pro: Students must fully understand the principle that makes America great. It talks about that if the U.S. high school don’t understand the principle of freedom and equality to American government and the historical roots of principle as adults. They tend to blame the teachers for the shortcoming of America’s school, As the teacher are trained. They tend to spend too much time learning how to teach. According to the Nation Assessment of Educational Progress has shown, many students in the studies of U.S. history and government, are not even mastering the basics. But also need improve on education in science, technology, engineering, and math. As they say, they tend to blame the teacher for the shortcoming “Without a major

America’s education system is increasingly being criticized for it not functioning properly and failing our students. In fact, this notion is so widely believed that when typing ‘American education system’ on a search engine, two of the three predictive texts attempt to complete this phrase with words that have a negative connotation, such as ‘failing’ and ‘flaws’. The internet, newspapers, television, etc. are all saturated with criticisms of the American school system and solutions for this important issue. Taking a much different approach, award-winning educator and author of Against School, John Gatto insists that the school system is not failing at all, because it is not actually meant to educate, but to house children for “schooling.” Quite the contrary is succeeding in its true purpose.

In today’s society students aren’t pushed in high school to pursue their full potential, which makes students think they don’t need to put hard work into school making them lazy. The outcome of this is bad grades and upset parents making them believe they aren’t smart and that is why they are getting the grades they are receiving. In actuality these students aren’t being pushed and the teachers aren’t tapping into their talents to show them the full academic potential they have.

In an article published by The Daily Caller entitled “Parents and students are to blame for failing schools” (10 December, 2010), JM Arcano denounces parents and students for their role in America’s failing education system. He justifies this condemnation by highlighting many parents’ weaknesses when it comes to preparing their children for school, such as not providing the necessary foundation required by formal education, and by addressing that despite the typically scapegoated politicians and teachers, securing a proper education ultimately lies with the parents and their children’s determination, as politicians’ best efforts (NO Child Left Behind, Head Start, Race to the Top) cannot fully satisfy students’ real needs. Arcano’s purpose is

Mary Sherry makes a valid argument in “ In Praise of the F Word”. As a staff writer for Newsweek and a teacher of adult literacy programs, she claims the problem lies, not in the environmental factors affecting children while in school, but in the educational system and its impeding falsehoods when aiding students that have now come back to haunt graduates. According to Sherry, the meritocracy that had once reigned supreme in the classroom, has now shifted to a form of passive learning. Sherry suggests that everyone in society “excuses” poor behavior in school by saying “kids can’t learn if they come from a terrible environment”.

While it is not until his final chapter “Young People: Improving the Odds” that we read Edelman’s thoughts on American education at length, I argue that the theme of education is one that motivates Edelman’s writing.

In the speech “Remarks by the President in a National Address to America’s Schoolchildren” by Barack Obama, he encourages students to try hard in school because education will further their success in the future. President Obama uses the reasoning that with education students will have responsibility just like those around them to achieve high standards. Students must also try hard in school to get their work completed and not give up on their education and make going to college a goal of theirs. Students need to have responsibility, try hard on their education, and be aware that they have many educational opportunities.

Singleton carefully arranges his article in a way to further his argument. Singleton first shocks his reader by claiming what we need is more F's. Then with several short paragraphs he tries to prove his argument. He explains to the reader about the evolution and decline of the American educational system. How F's became D's then D's to C's and finally B's as an average grade. Then he hammers home his point by explaining how wide spread F's would reform our system. Parents would take an active roll in their kids education, teachers would have to excel if they themselves were not to become failures, the voters, politicians, and school boards would finally become aware of our problem when kids by the millions were held back. Then to sum up his argument Singleton states, "The single most important requirement for solving the problems of education in America today is a big fat F, written decisively in red ink millions of times in

Our education system does seem to be in trouble for the way that it is headed, but also a lack of motivation from the children seems to aid in the problems. It is said that America keeps up well with other leading nations in the early years of education, but as soon as kids start to grow older getting good grades just for that special trip to get ice cream doesn’t seem to be enough anymore and as the high grades begin to “weaken as students move through school.” (Bethell).

The blame is constantly being placed on the teacher and school. While teachers and schools are a major key to a child’s education, there are more components. In an article printed in The New York Times, Thomas Friedman writes: