Let us slump in peace: The case for an alternate senior spring

getbe given a lighter workload and an altered curriculum in their classes with juniors.

Ever since I entered the ninth grade, I have anticipated my senior spring, the pinnacle of my high school experience. I imagined myself coming to school everyday without needing to worrying aboutconcern myself with assessments and other work; I’d spend frees on the field with friends; I would no longer be holed up on the second floor of the library doing school work. I hoped to leave Horace Mann with a positive outlook at the end of my high school experience — but in many ways, this is not the reality.

My expectations could not have been more wrong. Right now, duringin my senior spring, I have just as much work, if not more, as I have had at any other time during high school. And while I could go on about how frustrating this is, I would rather look at all the reasons that could possibly justify this immense workload to make the following case: seniors at Horace Mann should either end school earlier, have a senior project for the last month of school where they do something meaningful to them, or

A few weeks ago, one of my teachers told my class that the administration was pressuring teachers to give seniors work in order to ensure that we don’t “slack off.” This leads me to believe that the school doesn’t understand why seniors choose to slack off in the first place. No one canwill deny that Horace Mann is a rigorous, pressure cookerhigh pressure academic environment where students attend classes seven plus hours a day and go home to continue their schoolwork for four more hours. After four years of rigor and stress, don’t seniors deserve a chance to breathe and enjoy their last few weeks at Horace Mann?

I have also often heard the argument that many seniors are still on waitlists for colleges that want one last grade to help them make a decision. Although some colleges want this grade, we must remember that they are receiving the semester grade. Seniors complete more than enough graded work during the beginning of the second semester to warrant cutting them some slack at the end of the school year. To say that we should be rigorously working until the very last day of school for the sole purpose of college is ridiculous.

If seniors plan to slack off during the spring and not put in much effort, what is the point of having lots of assessments? I’ve heard teachers say that students are welcome to slack off and do the bare minimum. I see two problems with this. The first problem is that Horace Mann students have hard work ingrained in them. If you give a student at this school more work, they are unlikely to submit crappy work out of respect for themselves, their grades, and their teachers. The second problem is that when students submit bad work, their teachers suffer when reading and grading it. This would mean that teachers are encouraging more tedious work for themselves that has no tangible return for anyone. Teachers have no interest in reading poor work, nor handing out dozens of mediocre grades. In order to avoid this, many teachers will remind students that failure is still a possibility. This task is not fun for teachers or students; it feels like we are receiving more work for the sake of perpetuating the school’s culture. While reflecting on this, I began to think about the purpose of work, particularly graded work, in a high school environment. Graded work is meant to teach us and assess us on our ability to retain information and utilize skills we learn in the classroom. But why do we need just one more English paper at the very end of high school? Are we truly getting something out of it that we ha ven’t already? After seven years here, we know how to write a strong analyt ical paper, solve a difficult problem set, or think through a difficult primary source reading. It is an unnecessary waste of time that could be spent cre ating happy memories with our friends before we head our separate ways. As a school community, we lose out as a result of this workload. When I think back to the end of my high school experience at Horace Mann, this work will be a large part of what I remember. Wouldn’t it be better for the school and myself if I remember the end of this experience in a more positive light?

I believe that the happiness of seniors should be a top priority for the school because they are their future alumni.

So what should we do instead? I propose that for the last few weeks of school we do one of three things. First, seniors could end school and graduate early. This model has been tested and proven by similar private schools in New York City, including Fieldston and Trinity. Other special senior events, such as prom and graduation, are held at an earlier date and seniors get a headstart on their summer.

Another solution is a model followed by many of the public schools in Westchester, as well as private schools like Dalton and Collegiate: the senior project or senior internship. Seniors stop coming to school, but they do something meaningful during those weeks. This allows seniors to also have the free time to spend with their friends and make those key memories at the end of high school.

It is arguably nice to have seniors remain on campus during senior spring couple weeks should be dedicated towards some sort of in-class, ungraded project for seniors to participate in. A form of this is already implemented in many courses where students revisit the coursework and use it towards some larger application; the only difference is they are currently graded. In classes taken with junior peers, seniors can do the same project, just ungraded. Traditional tests of knowledge such as quizzes are unnecessary for burnt out seniors, and projects that are meant to keep students engaged do not need to be graded in order for students to find value in them. The requirement to only work in class will promote engagement with the material in a healthy and valuable way.

Simply put, seniors should not have this much work at the end of the year. It makes them frustrated, gives more grading to teachers, and serves as an unenjoyable end to the year. As someone who has now all but made it through the end of senior year, I would