<p>Its called senioritis and some hs's are trying ways to combat this widespread phenomenon. After all the applications are in by December things are out of the students' control and after the acceptances begin rolling in, many emotionally disengage themselves from the HS experience.</p>
<p>The best thing we can do as parents is to caution them to successfully complete their class work and begin preparing them for the independence they will have next fall. We began making our son do his own laundry, "forced" him to increase his work hours by making him begin paying for his cell phone and share of auto insurance. We eliminated curfews, even on school nites, and stopped keeping his "to do" list. He almost missed the 5/1 deadline for sending in his acceptance deposit! He had to call up the Admissions Office and fedex'ed the check and paperwork in that day. Ah, a lesson learned!</p>
<p>I was talking to a friend who's son will be graduating from college this spring and he made an interesting observation. As students enter their junior year in HS and through frosh/soph year in college, they are typically in separation mode, spending all their time with friends, keeping late hours(our son typically dragged himself home at between 3am and 5am this semester break) and generally minimizing family life. Starting about junior year that begins to change. Late nites with minimal sleep becomes lame, friends remain important but not an obsession, and an evening spent at home is enjoyed.</p>
<p>senior year my daughter had the opposite response to "senioritis" She tried things that she had never done before like join a school sports team, vocal group, went on a big trip ( junior year 2 weeks to Costa Rica- senior year 3 week hike through canyonlands) She even sang a solo at graduation. She ultimately decided on taking a year off, she had been admitted to all her colleges, but she wanted some time in the "real" world.</p>
<p>And, what do you do when you have a H.S. Soph who is so fed up with her classmates' lack of desire to learn that she daily yearns to be in college already? Thank goodness we have a U. here for her to take a few classes at.</p>
<p>Charlesives--(Love your name, love the composer)I agree with your definition of senioritis--an emotional detachment from the HS setting; however, I would add that D's still tied into the academic scene at school as well as into ECs, friends, etc. Now that she knows where she's headed, she's preparing to move on to a new stage in her life.</p>
<p>concerneddad- mine was also fed up with teachers who were to lazy to teach anything interesting. She also had a hard time dealing with all the social stuff that goes on in high school. I think early Jr year she didn't think she would survive to reach the point she is at today. Things that helped a bit for her she got a job. And she planned an exciting trip for the summer with total strangers. She loved her trip and the people she met and came home for a senior year that she is just waiting to be over.
My concern for kids like this is that they have such high hopes that college will be different then high school. I hope for there sake it is.</p>
<p>I recommend making sure that May 1 check is sent on time. Some school are real sticklers for that deadline with so many kids rapping at their doors on the waitlist, so they do not always have sympathy for the slackers who are resting on their laurels. You don't want to be stuck with them another year when they are ready to go. My friend's son was not on the ball about registering for his classes, and found himself a semester behind the 8 ball his first term in college since he was unable to get a number of courses he needed to graduate on time. You really need to watch this for the larger state schools, because otherwise you can pay, or have to have him pay as he makes up those courses either in the summer or with an extra semester. My son had to spend a summer taking a course because he dropped a big hunker of a course that made him short in credits. I made him take it during the summer, and he did have to pay for it himself and he loathed every second of it as it cut into those summer nights.</p>
<p>My sympathies, concernedded. Look into distance ed. All I know about in detail is CTY, the program with which I teach, so e-mail me if you want what info I can provide. I've been there with my son, and CTY truly saved him in some ways.</p>
<p>Little Mother, we have a similar situation with coasts reversed and, looking at D's career plans, I have cast the I Ching and foreseen that she will probably be working on the East Coast after college. I'd been a bit glum about this until a friend pointed out that wherever she was it would be an interesting place to visit.</p>
<p>Mom60, I can speak only for my D but college has been different from high school exactly in the ways she was hoping/expecting. The things that kept her sane for junior/senior years were ballet, orchestra, AP Calc, and AP English, though oddly enough senior year was her best year socially. For the most part, she wanted to leave high school behind as quickly as possible. Though she's spent/spending parts of three days going back to see teachers, etc. over this break.</p>
<p>In our case....he is ready we (I) are not ready. And the situation is like TheDad, he has decided that no matter where he does undergraduate, his graduate school will be Stanford. </p>
<p>I told him if he felt this strongly he should have inserted such a feeling in his Stanford application.</p>
<p>Littlemother, great taste in music! I began my love of Charles Ives while in college-go figure-and have more than 50 recordings, tapes and CD's in my collection, including a 5 LP boxed set of all his solo piano works that were published.</p>
<p>Senioritis is worse for a kid who's been accepted ED. S is getting more frustrated with the classes he doesn't like--- suddenly Latin is one of those classes-- he who applied for a Latin scholarship at ED school! He told me that if he gets the scholarship, he's going to refuse it, because there's no way he's taking more Latin in college.</p>
<p>TheDad: I meant similar to yours. Like you are in west coast and she will be working in east coast. We are in south coast (?)and he will be in west coast.</p>
<p>Thanks to ED, senioritis is alive and well in the Greensleeves/ Cangel household. That's one of the main reasons I chose ED. Instead of being worried about decisions, I can rest easy and enjoy senior year.</p>
<p>Charlesives--Really enjoy the solo piano pieces but also like vocal and orchestral works.</p>
<p>TheDad--Maybe we should consider house-swapping?!</p>
<p>Greensleeves1028--My D's sentiments exactly. Now she gets some more driving practice in before taking the road test as well as enjoying her ECs and dance.</p>
<p>I want to get out of the house. Badly. But I'm sure that after a few days of being out, I'll miss home. That's why my first choice schools are all nearby. I need my space, but I also need the freedom to be able to come back home.</p>