In "In Praise of the F Word," why does Mary Sherry consider many diplomas that will be handed out to be meaningless?"tens of thousands of...

Mary Sherry considers these diplomas (or at least those
handed out 20 years ago when she was writing) to be worthless because too many of the
people who receive the diplomas have not actually learned the skills that they ought to
have learned by the time they finish high school.  She says that many of the graduates
are "semiliterate."

The "F Word" that Sherry is praising
here is "flunk."  She thinks that the school systems in the United States are too
unwilling to let students fail.  She says that they simply pass the students so as not
to embarass them or because we feel sorry for them since they come from poor
backgrounds.  Sherry argues that this kind of softheartedness simply cheats the
students, robbing them of their chance to get the sorts of skills they need to actually
succeed in life.