The middle of September is here and for a lot of you out there, it is your senior year. Soon you will be off to college, maybe making the dreaded break away from family or afraid you will never see your friends again. But before all that, something else is upon you that is even more prevalent: It is called “senioritis” and it affects seniors and parents alike.
Senioritis is a crippling disease that strikes high school seniors. Symptoms of senioritis include laziness, an over-excessive wearing of track pants, old athletic shirts, sweatpants, athletic shorts, and sweatshirts. Furthermore, it features a lack of studying, repeated absences, and a generally dismissive attitude towards school. Most cases of senioritis tend to start after college applications and mid-year reports have been sent in. As seniors perceive graduation’s fast and eventual approach, they can be endued with a sense that they have already met all the goals to achieve graduation and get into a college and therefore are overcome with a lazy and indifferent attitude; uncaring of their studies. It can often be contagious between close friends. These symptoms can extend beyond school activities, as seniors can have a generally dismissive outlook towards any type of labor whatsoever. Seniors themselves could fight for a cure to senioritis, if they weren’t so lazy.
Laziness is the main symptom that we need to address first and foremost, and this hinders a lot. Another senioritis cause is the timing of the college application process, as many colleges will have already made their acceptance decisions before the second semester or early 2011 starts. If they already have been accepted into college, seniors can feel they not longer need to work. This is false, and this notion should be addressed with your senior right away. The “fine print” of a college acceptance letters is that admittance is “pending school status at graduation.” They will wait for final grades to come in.
What this means is that a college will send you a second letter in the summer, after graduation, if you are no longer what they are looking for as an applicant. To avoid this, you need to keep discipline in doing your homework, and the study habits you have used the last three years in high school, and not slack off. These areas of discipline include adequate sleep, eating right, staying away from drugs and alcohol, taking honors or advanced placement (AP) courses, classes that will transfer to the university you have your eyes set upon.
Laziness also sets in when it comes to taking the “optional” exams, such as the SATs, ACTs, and AP tests. Statistics show that the average student will take the SATs and ACTs at least twice. Now, since these have to be submitted to most colleges by the end of the year, your child could already be behind if they have not taken these exams yet, or if they are unhappy with the last score they got. This is a good way to see the early stages of senioritis in your young adult. Laziness could also set-in in their home environment, where as they will want to do nothing but eat, play video games, and sleep. This is where you as the parent have to intervene and help keep them motivated to do more in their life.
There is no one cure for senioritis. However, preventative measures such as simple discipline and helping seniors remember how they got where they are in the first place, can keep the disease from developing to untreatable levels. The true test of how disciplined your child is will happen in the spring time, when the ever-infamous senior ditch days occur. Let them participate in one, they’ve earned it; but do not let them indulge in too many. There is a difference between a deserved reward and the catch of senioritis.
