Senioritis, or Why Should I Care…

Ibrahim Kaba, Staff Writer

 

By the time a senior receives a letter of acceptance from a college, a virus known as senoritis has already entered the system of that senior. This disease takes over his/her decision making and the part of the brain that, well, cares. It takes over the “attendance” and “dedication” cells in the senior’s brain and, eventually, so many of these cells are shut down that severe disinterest in anything school related besides prom and graduation results. It’s an epidemic.

This dramatic retelling of what seniors “face” each and every year is really just a farce. No such bacteria exists. What really happens is that school just loses its importance for a senior who is expecting to be in college in the fall. This vision of one’s self in college just makes high school lose its meaning.  This disinterest generally begins around the start of second semester when seniors hear back from schools they applied to. Some seniors immediately shutdown, while others experience a slow decay in effort as graduation approaches.

Seniors only have two incentives to continue working until graduation: Advanced Placement exams, which require students to study hard for the for examination in May in order to score well enough to earn college credit; and passing required classes.

Montgomery County Public Schools’ current grading policy makes passing a class while getting poor grades relatively easy due to final exams no longer existing.  Without final exams counted into semester grade, a student in the worst case scenario for his last semester can earn a D in first quarter and an E in second quarter to pass. In this system, a competent, but senioritis stricken student can do barely anything and still walk across the stage. Seems crazy, but I’m too apathetic to really care.