Do you believe in senioritis? Many believe that senioritis is just a make-believe feeling seniors create to get away with skipping class or missing assignments. However, the true feeling behind senioritis is the feeling of knowing you’re almost done and your body and brain shutting down because they are already enrolled in college or other after high school plans.
When it comes to senioritis it’s not a pass we use to come off as lazy; it’s simply that the students are unmotivated and have that feeling of exhaustion from doing school for too long. Let’s be honest, everyone was very happy and felt free on their graduation day.
There are many different psychological meanings and emotions behind senioritis, and the main one is the feeling of being educationally drained.
“I can understand why seniors lack motivation. Senior year brings many emotions. However, I think it’s important for seniors to learn how to push through those emotions and finish strong. By working hard to improve their academic and time-management skills in high school, students will enter college and the workplace more prepared and confident,” stated Mrs. Clive an 12th grade English teacher in New Hartford Senior High School.
Although there are some teachers who are aware of these feelings being brought to students as their senior year comes to an end, there are others who don’t believe in senioritis at all and again, believe that it should not be an excuse for not getting any school work done.
“Anticipatory Anxiety, basically what that is, is worrying about upcoming change and even good change is scary because there’s a certain level of the unknown about the future. ‘ Is it everything you want it to be?’
Students spend 13 years thinking ‘when will I be done with school?’ and now that school is over in 20 days it’s really setting in and they think ‘oh my god, we’re really done with high school,’ ” says Mrs. Hoyer, New Hartford Senior High School’s social worker.
Some students feel, ‘what’s the point of high school after being accepted into college?’ There have been cases where students have had their grades drop after being accepted into college and they’ve had their acceptance revoked later on leaving that student struggling to make plans for next year.
“Personally, I think it’s a mindset just because I have the ideology that I just go to class. I haven’t personally seen myself get affected by it, but I have seen my friends go ‘ i just have gym I’m not going to go’ also with the seniors having their cars in the lot–it’s so accessible to just leave. But personally I just think it’s a mindset,”said Diana Sorensen, a 12th grader in New Hartford Senior High School.
With the school year coming to an end, and as the weather gets warmer and warmer it’s very likely to see students get more and more unmotivated for school and more motivated for summer and graduation.
According to a study done by Omniscient, a student magazine: senioritis affects 78% of senior classes. Here in New Hartford, I don’t think it’s quite that bad. Students do an amazing job keeping up with their classes and getting to school while also dealing with the emotions of graduating. Do you think senioritis is a mental state students put themselves in or a feeling of unmotivation and burnt out because of the 13 years of K-12? It’s easy to just label these mixed feelings as senioritis, but with the school year coming to an end and seniors stressed out about life after high school, it can be more complicated than that. I believe teachers should have the same policy as they do with every other student, maybe just give the seniors a bit more motivation by allowing them the space to work on their own projects while still keeping them engaged and working on earning that good grade.
