Senioritis: excuse or reality for students?

Justice LaMaster | Staff Writer

Senioritis is something some students experience when it comes to senior year of high school. According to mathematics teacher Sara Stuckwisch and French teacher Ondra Couch senioritis causes students to lose their motivation in school and their grades to drop.

“I can understand that students are ready to come to the end of something because they have been in school for so long, and they want to see the light at the end of the tunnel,” Couch said. “But I think that maybe staff and students can do a better job at motivating each other when the going gets tough. It’s admirable to finish strong not in a weak way.”

According to Stuckwisch, senioritis is real, but it only affects certain seniors. Seniors are mentally ready for the next step in life, and this plays a role in why senioritis happens.

Although chemistry teacher Alex Johnson does not believe that senioritis is real, she has a mutual viewpoint with Stuckwisch. She said students who have already been accepted to college or students who already have all the credits needed to graduate are the seniors who are affected the most.

Stuckwisch and Couch said senioritis has been happening to each senior class for years and nothing has changed.

“[Everyone] can get tired and frustrated from time to time. However, I believe it is something that is passed on from senior class to senior class and it is almost provided as a right of passage so it’s okay,” Couch said.

Taking it from her own experience, Johnson said students use senioritis as an excuse to slack off.

“It wasn’t that long ago I was a senior in high school and college. I would joke about having senioritis, but in reality, I still gave the same effort in my classes,” Johnson said.

Johnson said senioritis is a mindset and will continue as long as students do not change their perspective.

“[It’s] a mindset. You are finishing a huge chapter of your life and many of the students are already looking to what’s next (college, career, military). Unless students as a whole change their mindset, I don’t see it going anywhere,” Johnson said.

Couch said if nothing changes with the way teachers let senioritis happen, then next year’s class will be worse than this year. She said change has to start with administration and staff saying something about senioritis happening.