In the article “In Praise of the F Word”, by Mary Sherry, she explains how flunking a student is for the wellbeing of students than to pass them if they absolutely do not understand the materials of that class. Mary Sherry speaks of this, due to the fact that she is an adult literacy educator, and also a writer. …show more content…
Sherry assigned her students to write about their experiences in school and some students wrote how wished they were held back or to have someone who cared enough for their academic career. Prior to teaching her adult literacy class, she used to blame her student’s poor academic skills on their lifestyles and their home environment. Sherry describes how teachers have methods to make their students concentrate, but if all fails; there is another method they could use, it is called the trump card of failure. The trump card of failure is to flunk a student if they simply don’t pay attention in class or they don’t do the work that was assigned. The trump card of failure can also be used as a scare tactic by letting the student know they will flunk the class. Later, Sherry notes that the trump card of failure was used on her youngest son, as a result, he changed his priority and went from flunking the class to passing the semester with an A. She notes that students who were passed along struggle with themselves later on and start to question how they even received their high school diploma in the first place. Sherry points out, teachers are cheating students by passing them without them truly understanding the work of