<p>D is still a junior and already I’m tired of high school. I can’t wait for her to be surrounded by a much greater number of student athletes who are mature, motivated, and dedicated to academics. Hopefully, the environment of the college she ultimately selects won’t disappoint her in this regard. It’s not that she’s an intellectual superstar, but she does try very hard. It’s difficult watching her feel sad when “everyone else” can go out all the time but she has AP homework to do. In college, you get a syllabus the first day of class that lays out your course schedule, so it’s easier for good students to arrange their workload. In high school, you could have worked ahead so that you could hang with friends on the weekend, and boom–some AP teacher assigns something big due the next class.</p>
<p>“In high school, you could have worked ahead so that you could hang with friends on the weekend, and boom–some AP teacher assigns something big due the next class.”</p>
<p>D*mn those AP teachers. The nerve.</p>
<p>I’ve noticed a different form of this in my senior son: he’s not really slacking off that much in his classes (although he did drop French 6 to become a “music aide”). But he’s checking out of some of his other activities, like school clubs, Boy Scouts, etc. He’s really looking ahead to college activities already. I guess I don’t have too much problem with this, as long as he lives up to responsibilities he’s accepted.</p>
<p>Our school combats senioritis in a very productive, creative way. During the fourth quarter (April) the kids who have fulfilled all their graduation requirements have an internship of their choosing for the rest of the year. They have to attend their AP classes until the test but the rest of their classes are over for the year. Some kids do something they’ve always been curious about - one kid is in a chocolate making factory, another in a cheese making factory (in NYC no less!), some work in an area they are considering for a career - working in a nursery or elementary school, or an radio station, etc. </p>
<p>They meet with a school appointed mentor weekly and present to a panel at the end of the year for a grade. It’s a great program and all the underclassman can’t wait to participate when they’re Seniors.</p>
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<p>I don’t know where you are intending to go to college, but most selective colleges that I know of don’t care about your system’s wacky internal grade-weighting. They would totally rescind your acceptance for straight Cs, even with a “4.0”.</p>
<p>(I realize that you said you weren’t going to slack off anyway, but in case anyone else for whom this is relevant is reading…)</p>
<p>D doesn’t look to be slacking off, but the stress factor is down substantially from first semester senior year. Slacking off is for the summer before college.</p>
<p>It never occurred to me before, but I guess that a side-effect of not ranking seniors might be an increase in senioritis among the top students.</p>
<p>Our school calculates val and sal based on the end of first semester positions. So conceivably, those students can go on hiatus after Feb 1. But they never do!</p>