Senioritis

So far this semester, I have to admit that my students have been little miracles of discipline, diligence, critical thinking, and politeness. And since last semester most of my students were possibly the most unruly bunch I have ever had the pleasure to teach, I've found myself wondering what sort of epiphany they must have had over Christmas break. But then I started thinking, and realized that this sudden change in attitude can most likely be attributed to the fact that the most popular students in my classes are all seniors. And guess what? All seniors suffer from senioritis.

For those of you who just went "seniorwhat?", please allow me to elaborate. If you are, however, completely familiar with this concept, feel free to let your mind wander for the next paragraph or so. Senioritis is a concept probably devised by movies such as "Grease", "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" and "Footloose", which inspired the idea that once American students reach their senior year, there is nothing for them to do in school, other than engage in enormously complicated romantic relationships, drive around in impressive cars, and burst into song and/or dance in random places such as the middle of the street, a high school fair, or the drive in.

To Americans, the concept of senioritis is well known. For Europeans, however, the notion that a high school senior has little left to do in terms of academics is completely foreign. After all, senior year is when European students really need to "kick it" if they want to get anywhere in life. If you're lucky enough to be Dutch, you will spend your senior year struggling through several sets of internal school exams, various term papers, oral exams, and just when you think you will burst into flames from all the stress, June is upon you, and you have to now memorize everything you have ever learned in school so you can regurgitate it during three-week long national exams. And if you're English, French, German, Belgian, Scandinavian, or from anywhere else in Europe, really, it's not much better. You too will spend somewhere around a month sweating over endless finals in a sweltering gym with nothing but the sound of pencils and the creaking soles of the proctors to distract you from your misery.

Interestingly, however, I'm not sure if senioritis really applies to the American senior either. At least not anymore. Many American students nowadays take AP and IB exams, and those all take place in May as well. And even if you're not a brainiac, many states, Georgia included, now force their high school seniors to take and pass an exit exam at the end of the year. So it seems as though even the American student has little time for song, dance, and romantic subterfuge.

That said, many seniors still wish they had nothing to do in their final semester, even though the opposite may be true. Senioritis nowadays seems to consist of a burning desire "to get out of here fast", so there will be nothing to do (or so they think). And that attitude is what is making life so easy for me right now. You see, when faced with senioritis, seniors have two options. Some choose to whine and complain about the every single assignment, and study so little they barely skate by with C's. The problem with that is that a low GPA has never done anyone any good, and this also significantly reduces your chances of receiving a good recommendation from your professor. So with the current economic climate, most seniors opt for the second option: they develop a work ethic like nobody's business, just so they know for certain that they will be graduating on time.

And what does this mean? That students, who as sophomores did not have a care in the world, and lackadaisical attitude was enough to make me pull out my hair, who as juniors were so stubborn and unwilling that I wasn't sure they would ever get anywhere, have suddenly blossomed into mature, young adults who read the book, complete assignments in advance, and tell other students to behave like grown-ups for God's sake. And all this because they. will. get. out. of. here. in. May. It's beautfiul. And even though it may not involve any dancing around cars, dragracing, or harmonious singing about summernights, I really really like it.