In Praise of the F Word by Mary Sherry Critical Analysis

The article "In Praise of the F Word" by Mary Sherry calls attention to the problems that she has found in our school system. Being a teacher and parent of students, she discovered schools are allowing students to pass without proper knowledge of the material. The author successfully argues that having fear of failing will motivate them to put school and education higher as a priority.

Mary Sherry believes that schools are failing students' futures by handing out pointless diplomas. These diplomas do not help them in their careers as students have never learned the subject. Relieving the students' trouble of failing a class in school might seem helpful, but if they don't know what to do later in life it could hurt them tremendously. One of her students told her, "I was a good kid and didn't cause any trouble, so they just passed me along even though I didn't read and couldn't write" (Paragraph 3). Students' degrees tell employers that they can work as employees. Sadly, some students aren't ready as they never learned. Another problem she discusses is that students aren't motivated about school. Students don't make school a priority because they don't see anything at risk. If schools were to use the "F word" students' would have something to lose. Sherry tells about her son's school,“‘She's 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” (Paragraph 6). This provides an example to support her claim that fear of failure can motivate students to work harder and make school a priority in their life. A teacher who emphasized failure as a consequence caught his attention to focus in school.

The author Mary Sherry, a teacher and parent gives her insight on the issue. Her intention for writing this article was to share and convince parents and teachers how the school system should change. She does so in an organized manner with a serious and somewhat aggressive tone. Her claim of using the “F Word" to push students to care about school is well supported in her article. She gives many examples of her teaching and parenting experiences to persuade the reader. The end of her article closes with "succeed--or fail. It's time we return this choice to all students". The author makes the reader aware that things must change to reduce the number of students without that chance.