Every spring, the Nyack Spectrum Newspaper editorial staff notices a sharp decline in club attendance. Admittedly, low membership has been a problem all year, and this April brought its anticipated wrath. However, this seems to be a school-wide issue, largely contributed to a pandemic by the name of “Senioritis.”
Funnily enough, this disease seems to reach beyond the senior class, to juniors and even some sophomores.
Why don’t we care about school anymore?
We at Spectrum are sure this trend is attributed to spring’s gorgeous weather and Nyack’s enticing turf fields during lunch, exacerbated by this year’s extreme pollen production, and majorly caused by an imminent finish line and college plans.
So here is what we ask instead: Why are we so excited to evade our commitments?
The fault doesn’t entirely lie with Nyack High School students.
Apathy isn’t inherent. Our teachers must understand - we’re exhausted. However, the problem is only partially workload, unfair expectations and the nightmare that is the college process. The real silent killer is that we were never taught how to work.
Most of us attended elementary and middle school during the introduction of LATI (Learner-Active Technology-Infused) classrooms. Activity lists - the majority of our foundational education - taught us how to do the bare minimum in class. Putting the onus on 12-year-olds to complete activities to teach themselves about Edgar Allen Poe or Aerodynamics was not effective. Self-led learning taught some of us how to get away with not learning. In order to “complete” one of these activity lists, choices between classwork like watching videos and completing worksheets were presented. There was usually a way to hack the list, only having to sit through a few short videos (that could be sped up or muted), click through a slideshow and race through the easiest worksheet.
While hands-on group work, focused on real issues, is extraordinarily valuable in education and social development, flexible seating and music did our class more harm.
With the flexibility that LATI classrooms offer, a student could recline, fidget and chat while working in elementary school, which did not prepare us for the reality of sitting upright and quietly all day in high school. This is a concern about entering the workforce: If we can get by on the bare minimum this long, will we be self-motivated and equipped to produce up to par work?
What does all of this have to do with senioritis, You may ask?
Tired, unmotivated and bored are not ideal emotions while sitting, confined at a small desk in a warm classroom. Once the required work is complete, there isn’t motivation to do anything else. We can understand why the Nyack Spectrum Staff feels unable to do the "extra" that extracurriculars entail.
“Finishing out the year strong” is just a nice idea when you don’t care anymore.
Our generation isn’t lazy. Work feels far more taxing because we weren’t taught how to do it.
We were allowed to slouch while breezing through and avoiding as much work as possible in class, and are now expected to keep up with rigorous coursework, scheduling and homework on my own. Clubs and extracurricular activities feel almost out of the question.
Without incredible self-discipline, it’s a recipe for Senioritis.