The Science Behind Senioritis

I was supposed to write this article two weeks ago, but here I am in my living room doing it now.  I fought my guilt with one word: senioritis, a ‘disease’ which has plagued many seniors for generations post second marking period.  I am now a recovering senioritis student. Some of the symptoms I suffered from were procrastination, i-can’t-get-off-couch syndrome, and well…laziness. As I went through the recuperation process, I pondered over this disease which many of my fellow students are also suffering from. What changes within the mind of a senioritis victim?  What triggers the symptoms? What is the science behind senioritis?

Psychologists in Connecticut College cracked the code. They suggested that the suffix, ”-itis” included at the end of senior, provides the perfect platform  for seniors to perpetuate their procrastination. It presents laziness as a disease, something out of one’s control, and saves them from accounting for their actions.  It soothes one ego when a student flourishes his condition with a common phrase among seniors, ” I am suffering from seniortis,” rather than simply stating that he is lazy. These psychologists farther connected senioritis to the monotonous, high school curriculum. According to the results of the research, seniors adopt an entitlement attitude because of the ”lack of novelty” in the education systems. i.e most of them have the same teachers, learn in the same classrooms, and are around the same people, so doing work in one’s final year becomes tedious.These experts also advised that in the senior year, students be allowed to focus on their interests, and what they wish to pursue in life.

I interviewed Timothy Kim, a senior who has  fallen victim to senioritis. He believes there would be a “drastic change” in a senior’s work attitude if Leonia’s Board of Education followed these ideas. The Board of Education has taken a different route, however. It has granted seniors who earn an A- average or higher an exemption from the final exams. This strategy, however, has only proven successful among a few students. Others are still swimming in the shifty seas of senioritis

The basic premise behind senioritis is: GPAs have been calculated, and students believe there is no need to study. This highlights the basic motivation of students: the aspiration to get a good enough GPA for the college they wish to enter. It also emphasises the flawed mentality associated with students in America, for the main motivation behind an education should be the thrill associated with the definition of our goals,  the adoption of life skills, and the ability to think. Students must be fascinated by the mystery-solving in physics, the fact-finding of biology, case-cracking in calculus and the wonders of storytelling in English . Of course, that is the ideal world. We take the classes because we have been told to take our 4 years of English, 3 years of history, etc. We are taking classes because we should. In our final year, when the  requirement is taken out of the equation of education and desire becomes the lone component, senioritis sprouts among those who lack it.