<p>I did a search for "senioritis" and was surprised to find nothing posted under that header since November 2009, so I figured a new thread might be in order.</p>
<p>My son has it bad. It's not that his grades are bad overall, but he is courting a D in one class, and no one can seem to motivate him to work any harder. He just keeps saying he's tired and ready to move on with his life. I understand, of course! He took a very heavy course load that pushes the limits of what he can handle. And it's hard to convince him that it's critical when he could get an F and still graduate because it's not a required class.</p>
<p>Anyone else having trouble motivating a kid who's just ready to be done, done, DONE?</p>
<p>My S was dealing with a bad case of senioritis, too. Then, one of his friends was notified by his school that he’s acceptance was going to be rescinded because of a D he received last term. That sort of woke S up although he’s still counting the days…</p>
<p>BTW, I believe S’s friend was somehow able to appeal. That was a close call.</p>
<p>We have it REALLY bad at our house. S has to complete one more service project by May 7th and has a huge group project due by May 10th on the genocide in Darfur and they haven’t even started it. As for the rest of his classes…well I have not ever seen him open a textbook since spring break. I have turned into a total nag!</p>
<p>This is true research: inmates are more likely to break out in the last year of their sentence, than any time before. </p>
<p>There is something about seeing the finish line too, maybe too early, and not being able to hold out much longer. </p>
<p>I’m sure in the big scheme of things it won’t matter (assuming one is still graduating). I have yet to hear of a parent or child tell a personal of a rescinded an offer (its always a ‘friend of a friend’). I’m not convinced.</p>
<p>My S has reverse senioritis. After a dismal freshman year, and an uneven sophomore and junior years, he is having an absolutely stellar senior year. At this moment, in fact, he’s plugging away at his honors physics thesis.</p>
<p>I wish he’d done this sooner, his college prospects would have been much broader. At least this bodes well for college…I see less chance of having to post in the ‘my son is on academic probation’ thread in the fall. :)</p>
<p>Last year was awful for my daughter. She didn’t do any homework unless it was graded her entire senior year. As soon as she got in to her top choice in December, it was a big slide. She survived; we survived. </p>
<p>Today, she had three finals completing her first year in college and I will pick her up on Friday. Yeah!</p>
<p>D has it bad too just as you describe. she too took a very challenging load and currently has 6 AP classes and the tests to study for. Going to the admitted student open houses in the east caused her to miss school and get behind. She just wants to be done.</p>
<p>I can’t imagine what it must be like for students who get accepted in December. I guess you fight that battle even longer.</p>
<p>A doctor described the situation as a student being consequence avoidance. If I don’t do well, I won’t get in to the colleges I want. Once they are in, no more consequences. The reward driven kids are the ones who want to be valedictorians; they keep working.
Honestly, having DD calm down a bit was a nice change.</p>
<p>I have given up. Arguing with my 18 yo S about doing his environmental science worksheet (for example) is creating so much strife and hard feelings that it just doesn’t feel “worth it”. He is absolutely convinced that his admission won’t be rescinded and all I can say is “I hope you are right”. At this point our rules consist of one thing - “Don’t do anything illegal” which if you think about it, is pretty comprehensive.</p>
<p>I almost wish we had senioritis in my house. My son was up till 2 AM working on an AP history project…I felt like saying, “take the zero and get some sleep, will ya?”</p>
<p>The thing about him is, he has never really been very consequence-driven. He’s internally driven–sometimes. He’s as likely to work his butt off when it will do him no good at all as at any other time.</p>
<p>That’s probably a safe attitude. In real life, consequences aren’t as immediate and regular as they are in high school. Heck, in college, consequences aren’t always as immediate and regular as they are before college. People who require the imminent threat of a spanking, a bad grade, or being grounded before they will do things that are important to their success at whatever it is they want to succeed at run a grave risk of being out in college where the professors won’t always give 25 grades a term and nag you about being prepared for the final. You don’t want to become a workaholic either, but having that internal motivation to see past immediate threats and make good decisions even when there’s no one around to punish you instantly if you screw up is a good trait to maintain.</p>
<p>The consequence is not necessarily coming from outside; it is a fear of failure as well and the consequences of that. In high school, I hope that my kids learn(ed) to prioritize a bit.</p>
<p>Senoritis enhanced by an overload of other school-related stuff going on almost not leaving time for school! Still playing a varsity sport (tennis matches at least 4 days a week), a class departmental trip to NYC last week (missed classes, work to make up), constantly being pulled out of class for other school needs (pictures for this and that, fill out this form, Nat Honor Society work, etc. etc. etc.), school and city banquests for sports-academics, etc. WHO HAS TIME FOR SCHOOL!? </p>
<p>Don’t forget prom this week! He told me this morning (Prom is Friday) that one of his best friends (a girl) took yesterday for prom errands and tanning - huh?! I can’t believe her parents allowed that one!</p>
<p>That’s a good point! I probably should have specified “external consequences from authority figures”. That’s not to say that you never goof off, but that you are capable of determining when it’s necessary to buckle down and are capable of doing so without someone threatening to rescind your acceptance to Villanova or something; because eventually there isn’t going to be that authority figure who can always step in and threaten, nag, or bully you into succeeding…</p>
<p>It makes perfect sense, especially in the case of an ED. What is the point after that? It also doesn’t help that many teachers seem to go out of their way to refuse to acknowledge that a senior who has already been admitted to college has a rational reason not to care about all of the minutae.</p>
<p>While D is definitely not working as hard on schoolwork as before (3rd quarter grades went down), I see her senioritis manifest in a mildly rebellious attitude toward the school administration, teachers and coaches. She just doesn’t have any reserves of patience left for anything she considers stupid, unprofessional, or hypocritical. For example, she has developed an inordinate degree of hostility toward wearing her school ID. The policy that the students must wear name tags around their necks is new one for this academic year. For some reason, though, they’ve suddenly begun to threaten strict enforcement again, after being lax since Oct. A lot of kids, including my normally compliant D, have taken to wearing another student’s tag, or Pokemon cards, or whatever to prove that it’s a silly rule because adults are too stupid to actually notice. </p>
<p>Well they noticed, and so now they’ve upped the penalty and are considering it an integrity violation to not wear your own ID. This only infuriated D further. I think what originally sparked her irritation is that the principal had told them the purpose of the ID’s was so they’d all get to know each other (made me think of that Seinfeld episode about nametags) and so they’d be better prepared for their future jobs where wearing ID’s is required. OK, so it has nothing to do with keeping out drug dealers, or gang members, or troublemakers from other high schools, or anything truly important?</p>
<p>I think the middle path is appropriate. I don’t think teachers should just say after April 1, “hey, none of this matters any more, so party on, boys and girls!” But I think it’s appropriate to ramp down the workload a bit. Keep giving the kids stuff to do and demanding that they do it, but take the foot off the accelerator in terms of frequency & size of assignments. Some of my son’s teachers appear to be doing that, some, not so much.</p>
<p>@TheGFG–wow. That sounds pretty regimented. Is this a private or public HS?</p>
<p>The absurdity of a lot of what goes on in high school becomes very difficult to tolerate after college acceptance. After 3 years of intense pressure to get to the point of an ED acceptance, the rest of it all seems like nonsense. It’s just time to move on and relax a bit after killing ones self for years.</p>