Senioritis shouldn’t be an excuse
The senior countdown in the SHS commons dwindles.
March 20, 2017
I have 26 school days left of high school until senior project. I’ve been accepted to all of my top colleges, and I’m going to graduate high school, but I’m still trying in all of my classes. I still do my homework, I still pay attention in class, and I still care about my grades. As my classmates slack off on homework and spend their commons periods playing ping pong or watching Netflix, I’m writing papers, annotating books for English or making flashcards for my government class.
I get it. If you’re committed to a college and aren’t in difficult classes senior year, it’s easy to lose the motivation to care about your high school coursework, or even come to school. However, I find the increasingly serious cases of senioritis to be somewhat disrespectful to teachers. Your teachers are still trying to teach you, and are putting in an immense amount of work to make sure you’re getting the lessons you need to be prepared for college. Not preparing for class or not showing up at all leaves a bad impression on the teachers that have gotten you to the point of being accepted to college. I know very few people agree with me, but I think seniors are obligated to do their best up until May 4. Solon High School has given us too much to blow it off second semester.
It’s not only respectful to try your best, but it is also useful to you. When you have to take an entry level physics class in college as a Gen Ed requirement, you’re going to regret blowing off the second semester of CP physics at SHS. College classes move fast, and students are expected to make sure they have a grasp on the material on their own. Paying attention in your high school classes, instead of playing on your phone when you think the teacher isn’t looking, can give you a base level of knowledge and can help you keep up with the fast pace of a typical college curriculum.
Furthermore, continuing to put effort into high school coursework creates a precedent of work ethic and academic excellence in a student that will make the transition to college much smoother. I imagine it would be nearly impossible to summon a good work ethic when you get to college in the fall after slacking off for the last half of senior year.
Seniors: even though you may have graduation fever and care more about confirming housing deposits, finding roommates and attending accepted students visits than your SHS classes, I ask you to fight the senioritis, and cherish this last month of high school classes you have left. Things are about to get harder; the real world is not like high school. You will never again be a student at SHS, you’ll never sit in math class with these same people again, and you’ll never have all your childhood friends in one place. After May 25, your time at SHS will be over forever; so don’t look back on your senior year with regret, hoping you had been more present.
Benjamin Moore • Apr 12, 2017 at 8:34 pm
When you state “Solon High School has given us too much,” I feel as though you are undermining Solon High School’s impact in the majority of our lives. Solon High School has given a plethora of students anxiety, stress, and overall confusion into what the “real world” really is. Solon High School has provided all of this mayhem coupled with a lacking support structure and an administration that doesn’t know the difference between “your” and “you’re” (especially in certain Assistant Principal offices). Furthermore, since I have taken 14 AP classes over the past 4 years, I believe I deserve a small break from pointless books and meaningless discussions before I grind my way through the most academically challenging 4 years of my life in college. So YOU can go work diligently on essays and YOU can work yourself into the ground. Meanwhile, I will be playing Ping-Pong for the rest of my High School career simply because I’ve put in the work to deserve a little play.
To move on to the topic of respect towards teachers, I see what you mean. It can appear disrespectful to some teachers when seniors do not care about their class. However, if a teacher truly wants me to be engaged, then engage me. Make class interesting. Instead of lecturing to a group of apathetic students, teach your class in a manner that is both exciting and interesting. As students, we seniors are able to be engaged in a class, we’ve done it for the past 3 years; however, when teachers give up on apathetic seniors, as they often do, then seniors will continue to fall into the luxurious black hole of senioritis. Therefore, teachers should be even more excited to teach Jane Eyre or to talk about Iran’s political culture, especially when the teachers know their seniors are lazier than any other class in the high school. Yet, it is not entirely the fault of the teachers. Massive companies, such as the College Board or Kaplan, force our teachers to step away from exciting lesson plans and shift to onerous lectures that not even the teachers enjoy. These major corporations are sucking the life out of our teachers; while, still charging 93$ to take the tests that are “essential for college.” But that’s an argument for another day. And unless some government legislation brings some life back into the bland, wilted walls of Solon High School in the next 16 days, I’m going to continue to take a break from desolate learning and finally… learn to relax.