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May 5th, 2005

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May 3rd, 2005

03:13 pm - Who cares? As I've walked the halls of Moeller over the past few weeks, I've finally come to terms with the concentration problem that just about every senior has labeled "senioritis."  To the administration and our parents, this simply sounds like an excuse to slack off during our last few months at school, but if you think about it, we really have no reason to maintain a good work ethic.  For twelve years now we've all been told that we need to work hard in school so that we can get into a good college and get a good job, but now that most of our college decisions are complete, seniors in high school are at a sort of 'lame duck' stage in their education careers. You'd think that our teachers would let us ease up on the work load a bit to sort of celebrate our successes, but with less than three full weeks of school left, I have a 4 page research report due alongside several other papers and class presentations.  Now don't take all this the wrong way - I don't consider myself a slacker (and I don't think my friends would either).  However I think all of this work could have been assigned at a much better time of the year (like back in february when we watched all of the Matrix movies in english class).  Here's how I see it: As an incoming freshman, most students have a very high level of motivation and a good work ethic because they're afraid of doing poorly.  They'll work very hard throughout their freshman year, and then suddenly realize that things aren't as rough as they thought they were.  A sophomore realizes that he or she can be successful even if they provide less effort than they did during their freshman year.  As a junior, students start getting worried because college seems right around the corner.  Their grades suddenly become very important to them, and they work extremely hard to do well.  And finally, a senior maintains a moderate work effort level during the beginning of the year because colleges are still reviewing his or her academic profile, however as soon as he or she is accepted into a college that they wish to attend, motivation hits the floor because as long as they pass all of their classes, admission is pretty much guaranteed. In light of all this exciting information, I've designed a chart to help high school administrators and teachers better moderate the difficulty of the work presented to their students over the four years in high school. With all that said, maybe I should go write the english paper that I should have turned in earlier today.... Pssh!  I've done enough writing for today, it's time for a nap! --Mark

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