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As soon as that student's teacher made clear that the consequences of continued poor performance would be failure in the course, that student began making more of an effort and ultimately received an A in the class. The inference is that students often perform much more poorly than they are capable of performing simply because they are aware that being failed in a class is not a likely consequence.
The most important point advanced by Sherry is that so-called "social promotion" of students who do not deserve to pass courses or progress to the next grade is counterproductive to those students, to the educational system, and ultimately, to society in general.
Synthesis:
Both Zinsser and Sherry make valid points, although the thesis advanced by Zinsser may be somewhat less practical than that presented by Sherry. Certainly, many entrepreneurs (including some who founded the large and successful computer companies) never finished college. Similarly, many tremendously successful individuals in other fields achieved their dreams through what are considered non-traditional paths by today's standards. However, to suggest that one should consider that route instead of formal education is somewhat irresponsible. In modern society, the vast majority of occupations that...
The fact that some may achieve success without school ignores how many more individuals make their lives harder than necessary by that choice. A more responsible middle-of-the-road position would be to avoid rigid adherence to formal academic success and traditional paths to vocational success, but to make the most productive use of academic opportunities toward whatever goal one maintains beyond school.
Sherry's essay is much more realistic because there is comparatively little risk to failing students who do not deserve to pass courses or to progress to the next grade. Naturally, those failures cause considerable distress for the student in the short-term, but compared to the long-term consequences of perpetually passing students despite poor performance in school is far more harmful to those students. Sherry's position is absolutely right, whereas Zinsser's should be considered only with caution. Advising students to pick courses most appropriate to their vocational goals and to consider all possible avenues of success (including non-academic ones) is fine; advocating dropping out from school more generally is simply irresponsible.
In 1682, the Quakers purchased East New Jersey. Penn then sought to extend the Quaker region. The King granted Penn a land charter, the area that is currently known as Pennsylvania, and that charter made Penn a sovereign ruler and the world's largest private landowner. Penn named the region Sylvania, but Charles II changed that to Pennsylvania, to honor Penn's father. (See Jacobson, pp. 43-55). Pennsylvania was a very interesting
Her persona and life have become dependent on what other people said about her, and she was not given the chance in the story to assert her true self. Thus, through the third-person voice, Faulkner showed how Emily had been and continued to be suppressed by her society, being a deviant single woman who kept to herself rather than mingle with her neighbors. Despite Emily's defiance to the community's
They distributed publications that denounced the entire monarchy for their imposition of new taxes and for forcing their religious views into the government. Doyle brings up that reform was attempted financially before the Revolution began in 1789, whose failed attempts might have been what pushed normally non-violent citizens to have to take matters into their own hands. Restrictions on grain sales were lifted in the hopes that the sales and eventually
The ability of the state to hem in the free use of public space is clearly seen in the limitation of the Free Speech movement in Berkeley, California. Students at the state university were outraged by the limitations placed upon the campus by the administration, such as prohibiting non-students from disseminating materials and the prohibition on distributing political leaflets on the Bancroft-Telegraph sidewalk, traditionally an area of political protest (Mitchell
She does not need to be smart, only pretty and popular, and she does not play a part in decision making or political thought. In effect, she is empty-headed and boy crazy, and that seems to epitomize how these authors see the women in their stories. They are not too bright, and must leave all the "important" decisions to men who can understand them. It is not a very
Anti) Right to Die Science and technology has allowed humans to treat a myriad of diseases that were previously terminal. This is illustrated in the controversy over the case of Terry Schiavo, the Florida woman at the center of a right to die dispute between her husband and her parents. Schiavo, who has been in a vegetative state for the past 13 years, brings a face to the legal question of when