<p>We've had a different experience with seniors and ECs. For all of the school-based ECs DS1 is involved in, there is an active transition with the juniors taking leadership at the beginning of the second semester. It keeps the organizations going despite senioritis, but more importantly, it gives the seniors a chance to pass on institutional widsom to the juniors rather than having large, complicated enterprises learn the ropes from scratch each year.</p>
<p>This doens't happen with all the clubs at his school, to be sure, but this thread has made me realize that there's been a smooth transition in DS's activities. It has created some wonderful opportunities for DS and the personal maturity that's developing lately as a result is astounding. Very, very cool.</p>
<p>As a parent, would I get involved with the school on this one? No Way. I think it's a great idea for juniors to talk to club sponsors and seniors about ways to "pass the torch" and share institutional wisdom, but this is a leadership opportunity for a student, not a parent.</p>
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Quite frankly, we weren't doing so well in our earlier years until we found out that the schools that were succeeding had classes offered in the competition under the title of Independent Study. Kids found it too difficult to do all their regular work and EC's and add this stuff on top of it. Now, what they have to study is the homework for one of their classes. Our Decatholon and Octathlon teams went on to state for the first time this year, because of this.
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<p>We've managed for the last four years to get to the state levels without making Science Olympiad a class and frankly I feel like what the top schools do is tantamount to cheating. But I guess if we ever want to go to nationals we'll have to bite th bullet.</p>
<p>Our math team is moribund because the teacher does nothing. The academic team has a kid who has been unofficially leading it since he was a freshman. (He followed in the shoes of his big brother.)</p>
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This form of "senioritis" is a big problem at our school with ECs. Most officers for clubs like NHS and Student Government are seniors, and after the first few months of school go by, and all the apps are done and sent in, NOTHING is done in these organizations.
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This was generally true at my kids' HS also. I'd like to see a rule that doesn't allow seniors to hold officer positions in many of the clubs since it seems that the majority no longer care and are 'too busy' with college apps, etc. to the detriment of the club, the younger students, and any good works the club would normally do.</p>
<p>Considering that seniors are busy in the first half of the year with applications and checked out for the second, this might not be a bad idea. The problem is, of course, that seniors in the fall want those offices/ECs for the applications. I like the idea of passing leadership to the juniors at the end of January.</p>
<p>If I remember correctly, sophomores and juniors were very active in S's Science Team so the transition in leadership from seniors to juniors was very smooth. The seniors were not expected to organize everything, nor did sophomores and juniors sit back and wait for orders before acting.</p>