Article by Phoenix writer Isabel Connolly ’23:
As the first snow falls, so do seniors’ test scores. It’s inevitable. As we drudge our way through the late winter slump, high school seniors lose interest. It is a phenomenon colloquially termed ‘senioritis.’ The word is the bogeyman, waiting in the shadows of a senior’s first semester, ready to antagonize teacher and student alike.
Senioritis is an all too real reality for myself and my classmates. There comes a moment where every senior has the epiphany that what they are doing now is simply a prelude to their future. It shouldn’t be too difficult to figure out why we seniors become disengaged. Especially for the class of 2023, high school has been turbulent. We have had to deal with the mundane in never-before-seen circumstances. We worked through it all with an end goal in mind, which, for my peers and myself, was college. We were invested in our class work because our grades mattered. Now, in this March lull, it feels as if nothing we do has an impact. So how can we stay engaged?
This is one issue that Dr. Chris Unger has been studying and hoping to answer. Dr. Unger is a Teaching Professor in Northeastern’s Graduate Programs in Education. He has done extensive work to revolutionize the education system. When I talked with him, he said that he worked with schools throughout the country that were changing their approaches. For example, students in Cedar Rapids are able to take an elective where they find a mentor and a project to help out in their community. This enables students to learn profession-based skills such as: how to write a résumé, how to properly present, and how to interact with clients. He noted that the added engagement led to happier students and less senioritis.
However, at the heart of the issue is the fact we are ready for our new challenge. There’s a new phase we’re entering. Dr. Anne Lucietto, an Associate Professor of Engineering at Purdue University, noted this in her study of senioritis from the student’s perspective. Dr. Lucietto told me that she herself experienced it while pursuing her graduate degrees. While her study was with undergraduates, she believes that high school seniors are even less equipped with the proper coping skills. Dr. Lucietto has always been an advocate for project-based work to allow students to engage in the topics that they are passionate about.
After identifying senioritis in her students, Dr. Lucietto asked them to define senioritis. Students had responses such as “a transitionary period between major periods in life” and “a whirlwind of different challenges and stresses coupled with an indescribable excitement for what’s about to happen.” They too noted that this disengagement came from a sense of their work not being conducive to their future success as they felt “the work that you are doing is not important to what your future might involve.” She said others noted that “everything I have become familiar with will fade […] it’s easy to become detached.”
This is a sentiment I have connected with. In a few short months I’ll be hundreds of miles away from home, and so as one of Lucietto’s students noted, “… senioritis is not a matter of not caring; it is a shift in priorities.” It’s far more difficult to focus on memorizing a Shakespearean soliloquy when my sister is asking me to attend her gymnastics showcase. I would much rather go to the beach with my friends than research for a history paper. I know I have to, and I will get my work done. However, isn’t senior year the time to truly soak up time with the people we care about? Is it so wrong if our focus and passion is on our family and friends?
Senior year is also meant to be relaxing. Yet I have found myself pushed more than ever. Some nights, I would come home after seven PM with forty history terms, an act of Oedipus Rex to read and answer questions for, a religion outline to write, a science lab to finish, and a math test to study for. This would be in addition to a swim practice to attend, an article to write for the PhoenixOnline, and a Mock Trial competition to prepare for.
Across the country, students are expected to be more and more involved while keeping up with rigorous academics and maintaining a healthy social life. Now add to that the incredible burden of college admissions. The process can feel like you are determining your entire future and selling yourself to these colleges in six hundred words or less, making it extremely daunting.
Perhaps teachers could lessen the workload. As high school is, for all purposes, over, should we not focus on ‘recovery.’ I have never been athletically gifted, but I have swum on my school’s team for the past four years, and recovery is important. As we prepare for the season’s end and championships, we enter a period called ‘tapers.’ We become ‘lazy’ and practices are lighter. We are told to keep off our feet to such an extent that our coach will have some girls sitting on kickboards when the bench is overcrowded. The philosophy is that we had put in the work all season, and now was the time to rest and trust our ability. Everything was working toward the finals. The purpose was not to give up or never touch the water. We still had practices, only lighter. This proved very successful as many dropped significant time in finals. Shouldn’t senior year be our ‘tapers’? We have put in serious work. We have hopefully given our best effort. These are the moments before our ‘championships’: college. It is what all of high school has been preparing us for. We should ‘get in the water’ but we shouldn’t still be ‘sprinting.’ We should be fine-tuning and learning those last skills we will need in college. I am not asking that we excuse laziness on the part of seniors. Rather, I am suggesting that we have understanding for the plight of graduating seniors who disengage in these final months. But I am one of those seniors, so what do I know?