It’s a dreary Monday morning when students hobble back into school, through the cold weather, and into their classes. As they mindlessly watch their teachers they dream of warm days and begin to forget that it is still January and school is nowhere near over.
We may not be at the end of the school year, but we are in the final stretch, with the start of the second semester marking the beginning of the end. This “beginning of the end” feeling is strongest on our campus for the Arcata High seniors, who face only four more months until they finish high school. A drop in motivation is incredibly common in seniors, so common that it has a diagnosis: senioritis.
Many seniors reported having already felt common senioritis symptoms, especially during stressful times. Senior Abigail Issa, a model student at our school, reported her recent experience with senioritis, pointing out that it tends to get worse during more stressful times.
“Finals week was really bad,” Issa said. “I think the break kind of eased the senioritis but it also made it worse because it showed us how good not having school is, it put it in perspective.” Issa went on to list her symptoms as a rise in procrastination and prioritizing other activities to avoid school.
“Every day I come home and I do everything except homework: go to the gym, go for a run, go outside,” Issa said.
Other seniors have more severe symptoms, citing an extreme hate for coming to school.
“Waking up in the morning and wishing you were dead instead of coming to school,” Emmerson Brownfield, another senior at Arcata High School said when describing her definition of senioritis.
Many teachers have also noticed senioritis across campus, taking different positions on how to best handle students with this lack of motivation.
Jason Sidell, the makers and computer programming teacher, believes that we should do more to help seniors use their last year of high school wisely and prepare them for the future in more hands-on ways.
“Schools can do more to help seniors prepare for what is next,” Sidell says. “I think having them just sort of go through the motions their last semester or year of high school when they are already thinking about college and careers is a disservice.”
Adam Pinkerton, the government and economics teacher, strictly teaches seniors and takes a different approach to students with senioritis.
“Students just need to realize there are consequences for not doing their work, and so they put in a lot of hard work over the last four years,” Pinkerton states. “To finish to the best of their abilities is my recommendation, but everything is a choice.”
