In Praise Of The F Word By Mary Sherry Summary

Praise the Response In Mary Sherry’s article In praise of the ‘F’ word she sets here idea that having the ability to flunk is good for the students. Mary is an adult literacy teacher and her students often say they wished that someone had made them study. She states that most students cannot prioritize correctly. In most cases I would agree that most students have difficulty prioritizing school. Mary’s main point however was that flunking students is a good way to get students to learn correctly. This is not to say we go around and flunk without a reason for our madness. Mary Sherry states that most students cannot prioritize correctly for school and they require a push in the correct direction. She says “young people generally don’t have the maturity to value education in the same way my adult students value it” (page 3). Mary point is for the most part true. While yes a lot of students don’t quite grasp why school is so important, while yes in can be the lack of a push from the outside it can also be outside invasions such as divorce, drugs, etc. I feel that there is not enough …show more content…
Mary states that this would be a good thing for students because it puts a sense of urgency in the classroom. Mary used an example which was “”… I don’t move seniors,” she said. ““She is going to flunk you,” I told my son. I did not discuss it any further. Suddenly English became a priority in his life. He finished out the semester with an A.” (Page 2). She then says many of her adult students had just been pushed along until they could not take it any longer and just quit high school. Being a high school student myself I feel this is a thing that must happen because in most of my classes I see students who will not or cannot keep up with class. Like how in my freshmen year a student was kicked out of class on the first day of English because he did not feel he needed to be