Sometimes it happens after first semester exams. Sometimes it happens after colleges send out acceptance letters. Sometimes it happens after the senior research papers are due. Sometimes it doesn’t happen at all, and sometimes it even happens as soon as junior year is over. Sometimes it’s a gradual process, and sometimes it hits suddenly.
Most people call it “senioritis.” Dictionary.com doesn’t have a definition for that word, but you can dissect it: a “senior” is an older person, someone of a higher rank, or, in this case, a person in their last year of high school. The suffix “-itis” is used to refer to conditions where an organ becomes inflamed, so “senioritis” must mean a condition in which someone in their last year of high school becomes inflamed. Ok, maybe not. Head over to Urban Dictionary, the de facto dictionary of teen lingo, and senioritis is defined as “When you leave your backpack in your car trunk from 3pm to 8am.”
By this point, almost every senior has probably said something along the lines of “I don’t care anymore.” Generally this means that they put less effort into schoolwork, don’t pay much attention in class, and sometimes start getting more detentions. When people have been accepted into college and know that they won’t be in high school for much longer, their classes don’t seem as important. True, colleges can reject students after accepting them if their grades drop too much, but dropping from a B to a C won’t cause problems for most people.
Teachers have different ways of responding to senioritis. A few deliberately get stricter to keep students from giving up in class. Others seem like they save the easier parts of their courses for the end of the year, and others will just go on with their usual methods. Of course, at Nazareth, students are somewhat motivated by the possibility of exemption from second semester finals. Students who get A’s or B’s in a class for third and fourth quarter are normally exempted from taking a final; students who get anything lower in either quarter are required to take an exam for the second semester.
Senior privileges are also a factor that might steer students away from the temptation to irritate teachers at every possible opportunity. If a senior gets a detention, their privileges of college-wear Wednesdays, gym shoes, socks that don’t fit the standard dress code, and out of uniform Fridays are revoked until the Monday after the detention is served. If the student receives a second detention, then he or she must take all of his or her finals at the end of the year.
Still, there’s clearly a general feeling of apathy and unruliness in the air by fourth quarter. The results are interesting; almost anyone, especially a junior, will say that high school is incredibly stressful, students have no free time, and getting a good night’s sleep borders on impossible. Once seniors don’t feel as much pressure as they did earlier in their high school careers, they can relax. That can mean a lot of different things, from getting a decent amount of sleep to spending all night on Facebook and not caring about falling asleep in class.
Personally, I think my experience of senioritis has been a pretty positive one. I’ve stopped caring about getting good grades on busywork, and I don’t stress myself out to learn things that I’m not interested in. With that attitude, I have more time and energy on my hands to focus on learning things that feel important. I also think I feel happier in general; if I get a lousy grade or forget to turn in a big assignment, I’m able to laugh it off. Teachers might not like it much, but I do. Overall, senioritis is nothing to worry about, and it should be embraced, unless of course you are the senior class valedictorian.
