In my school, we have a "tradition" of sorts known as "Senior Skip Day." I'm sure many, if not all other schools have this tradition. I'm not for it, I don't plan on participating in it. In my eyes, this is just organized mutiny, that's a bit harsher than it really is, but that's basically the underlying point. If one or two people skip school just because they do not want to come to school that day, they would be punished and probably talked to by parents and/or teachers. However, it seems that if this large group of seniors decides to skip all on one day, it's all of a sudden deemed appropriate. For instance, cheating is wrong, if one person cheats, they will probably get their test taken away and receive an F. If everyone in the class cheats, they all lose their tests and receive Fs. Why is this not the same in this case, cheating and skipping are both wrong.
On another note, Senioritis as it is prevelantly known in my school, has been coursing through many senior's brains lately. A few individuals in my Physics class just decide not to come at times and I hear talk of others planning ideas to talk their way out of class (*cough* I'm sick, I can't come to class). I don't really understand the whole senioritis thing; I know I'm a bit different from most people in my class, I'd consider myself a bit nerdy. However, I was raised to "do everything to the best of my ability." School falls in the number one spot in this category. "Anything worth doing is worth doing right." I plan to finish out my year as best as I can and do all my work "to the best of my ability," and I'm not too sure why others don't see it this way.
I mean there are times where I feel that lazy feeling of :"I really don't want to do this!!"
but I do, and I do it the best
I'm a junior, and I think that senioritis is just a longing feeling of no more school, and the glorious laid back summer ahead. Because I think I have senioritis and that's how I feel. but it doesn't mean I won't work my tail off=)
Exactly, we may have the senioritis mindset of not wanting to do anything, but in the end most of us will actually do it. I'm just talking more about those that actually end up not doing anything at all. We all have that feeling of just wanting to slack off, it's human. I do look forward to summer as well (though I'll actually have to wake up earlier for my job than I do now for school....) but I'm concerned about my future after that summer, so I'm willing to do work now to succeed later. Oh, and props to you for working your tail off!
my class talked about doing a senior skip day, but no one went through with it. i'm glad i didn't participate in it; i would of been the only one.
I am a senior, and our Senior Skip Day was Feb 8th., my birthday is Feb 5th. I skipped on my birthday (Wed) and I had every intention of coming to school on SSD, because I knew we wouldn't be doing anything. (All the teachers know when SSD is, so they don't really plan anything). Anyway, I had an absolutely horrible day thurday (the 7th), I mean it was BAD, I started crying on the walk home from the busstop. I am generally a good student, and don't miss any days, so I wasn't worried about class or anything, if I missed a day for "recouping". I just decided not to go. I think there was about 17 seniors in school that day, haha.
I totally understand the whole senioritis thing, (I had mine in 10th grade after a particularly bad breakup..I missed 17 days), so I kinda had it out of my system. I really enjoy school, so I don't miss many days, although I am VERY excited about graduating because I am fed up with my school (see my other posts). ANYWAY, long story short, no, it isn't right to allow a group of students to cheat, but I think students generally deserve one day off in an entire school year where they all feel like they are doing something "against the rules". I didn't even do anything during my day "off", but the fact that I knew I was getting a break simply because I was a senior made me feel special. We (most of us) work our butts off during the school year...we have to apply to colleges, find scholarships, work, deal with emotional problems, anxiety, rejection etc. One day off isn't really hurting anyone as long as it's only one day. Besides, it give all the other classes the chance to look forward to something. It's a really nice stress reliever, and it's fun to know that you are uniting as one with a group of students that you may not normally get along with, or even feel connected to.
To make a long story short, I think that SSD's are more benificial than harmful, but I can see your points. I hope you reconsider the pros and cons that go along with SSD.
~In order to have a better society, we need to CREATE a better society."
I can see the pros that you've presented. I know that I would enjoy a nice day off. I think a nice alternative to SSD would be just a school-authorized day off just for seniors. Just pick a day, probably near the end of the school year and just let the seniors take off and relax from all the stress they've been going through the past school year. I can see your pros, but I know the true intentions of my classmates, and I don't believe that they want to take a day off of school just to relax; they more than likely want to do it purely out of rebellion. Then again, I may just be very pessimistic about my class, which is probably true. I've lost hope in many of my classmates; I know they have potential to be great people, but they dont' seem to care too much.
Our school pretty much knows that we are skipping. If you think about it, they really can't stop us. (I could see a definte exception if we tried to skip more than one day). Like I said before, our school basically says, "See you Monday seniors", and then we all bring in our "I was sick" excuses, and we go about our lives. I think that's one of the very few positive things about my school: they are generally laid back about stuff like that. As far as a designated day off, I am not quite sure they are even allowed to do that. In fact...that may be why my school is so easy going about it, they might think we deserve it, but the only thing they can do is overlook one day. Not to mention its a pretty cool tradition, and we don't generally terrorize the school with pranks. We're a pretty good school, that's probably why they let us do it with no problems.
I bet the first class that decides to abuse the privilage and have a Senior Skip Week or something will ruin it for all the classes below them. As I have noticed in just about everything dealing with school: we are allowed to do pretty much anything with general leinency from the school, the second it is abused, they take it away from everybody. If everyone treats a privilage with respect, we are allowed to contiinue having it etc.
~In order to have a better society, we need to CREATE a better society."
haha I can't even say anything about this one...I know that about 700 -800 of us will be gone on senior skip day...including the top 50...trust me that's who I have classes with all day and we all have the worst senioritis...a lot of teachers give tests that day that you can't make up unless your absence is excused...which mine will be...my parents call me out all the time...some days I just don't feel like going...like this past monday...haha...
one day they even called and said I had an appointment as did my friend's parents..we left at noon, went to lunch and then shopping...so I'm not one to talk about attendance issues
Yeah, I guess it's a bit different when you're in a school of 300 or so total. A top 50 in my senior class would be more than my entire class actually... Anyway, I don't agree with falsely exusing from school. Not to be mean or anything like that, but if you don't want to be at school that day, just deal with it. I mean, it's school, nobody likes school that much, but it's just something you need to deal with. Later on in life, you won't be able to call in sick whenever you feel like it. Then again, that's just what I've grown up believing. Then again, I'm one of those weird kids that tries to actually learn in classes rather than just memorize the information and spit it back out... it's weird, I know :P
don't worry I didn't take it as you being mean...yeah that would be more than your whole class...I am number 50 so that's how I know the top 50 won't be there...
and I know I should just deal with school...but at this point all of the ap teachers have stopped teaching and I sleep through spanish anyways...so I don't really see a point in sleeping at a desk or staring at a wall for 6 out of 7 classes when I could just do it at home in my own bed...you know what I mean?
Ah, Spanish, I remember Spanish. Our teacher was American and couldn't speak Spanish that well to begin with. So, as you can imagine, that wasn't a very productive class. Wow, so most of your classes have nothing to do in them now, wow, that's kind of weird. I'd suggest bringing something else to do in that time. Maybe ask if you could have a party or something every once in a while, for instance, you could maybe have a spring break party in some class. I can see where you're coming from, I just don't think skipping school is easily justified by a lack of desire to go.
yeah see our spanish teacher is from Costa Rica but still sounds like an American trying to speak spanish..I have a better accent than him
and yes we aren't really doing much in classes...like in ap govt we've been watching man of the year...in debate we're reading a book, in english we're kinda reading a book but during class we're watching a documentary about Iceland for the sole reason my teacher wants to move there...but yes you do have an idea...
I still see it as...if I have good grades and such then I don't really care about actually being there
Sheesh, we rarely watch movies in any of our classes, and my school doesn't even offer AP classes, well, I guess in essence our Bible is AP since it counts for college credit too... but I'm not positive on that. Actually, my Economics class watched Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, that was a stretch for Economics but it somehow fit into the subject. I guess I can't really comment that much on your situation then becuase there's always something to do, whether it be large or small, but we don't just watch movies on the time. So, no comment :P
haha I find it quite hard to believe that you have nothing to say...lol...but yeah we have almost ap everything...it's nice but it kinda sucks cuz if you are smart you are expected to take ap classes...over the last two years (you can't take them as a sophomore) I've taken the following ap classes: psychology, english literature, u.s. history, microeconomics, english language, calculus, physics, and government...and yes in all of those classes we've really gone weeks without doing things...and yeah I would say that that would be a stretch of a movie for econ...lol
I completely understand how you feel about the fact that seniors are not punished for SSD, but our school does a lot to keep people from skipping that day. We have a tradition of allowing Seniors to be excused from finals if they get all B's or better and NEVER GET AN UNEXCUSED ABSENCE or, in theory, ignore Senior skip day. But it doesnt stop anyone because we all have parents call in. Thats right our parents call us in to keep us out of school it is such a tradition here. Senioritis, i believe, is the need for Seniors to escape the scene of High School. We have all developed a lot as people through four years of High School and when you start thinking of college you just want to escape the prison that is public school. Some teachers arent used to the gap between Seniors and Freshman, so they teach at a level Seniors find offensive to their intelligence. I have felt this way to multiple teachers and believe it is just a catalyst for Senioritis.
I sure wish my school would exuse people from exams. I have a fairly steady 4.0 GPA and As in all of my classes, but no matter what my grade, I am required to take all exams. What really gets me is that I'm in Honors Classes, those that are not in Honors Classes are allowed to be exempt from exams. I thought it would be the other way around, but I guess not.... I agree that many seniors are looking forward to college very fervently. This is most likely due to the intense importance of college placed on seniors. I know that I personally hear about college and planning my future quite frequently and when I hear about all the new freedoms and fun things to do, I really want to go. All I can say to people desiring to go to college: Patience is a virtue. Cheesy, yes, but patience will help. Time isn't going to flow any faster, so, why go crazy over how slow it's going?
On the issue of teachers teaching down on seniors: I can't say my teachers necessarily do that, but I have a similar problem in my youth group at church. My youth group consists of all high schoolers, including 7th and 8th grade. We have one teacher teaching us all at the same time. Teaching 7th graders and 12th graders at the same time the same thing doesn't really work that well. Slightly different situation, but I agree that it is quite frustrating.
Wow, I have to say, I'm the most privileged one when it comes to reading this blog because I don't just know what you're talking about, I know WHO you're talking about. I'm certainly not like most people in the class either, but I definitely have senioritis. However, that just proves my point. I have senioritis too. I hate Quinn's class too. I'm tired of the same things they're tired of, but you know what? I'm there everyday. I COMPLETELY agree with your thoughts on working your hardest on everything you do. That's not just a personal conviction you and I share though; that's something the Bible specifically talks about. The other kids in our class all claim to be Christians but are practical Atheists. That's not just a problem with our class though. That's a problem with the whole country. There are way too many people who claim they're Christians but don't live the life at all.
You know what makes it even better? This whole year has been SSD for a lot of our class. I do, however, have to add one thing to the whole thought about it not being wrong if everyone does it. The Seniors last year went to Cracker Barrel for breakfast, and Mr. Quinn walked in on them, said hi, and left. That had to kill the day. I do wish the school would take disciplinary action though.
It doesn't really even make sense. I mean, we have a whole week that the Seniors are perfectly aloud to leave school for the class trip. Do we really need another day? Also, I love our chain in Mrs. Kirby's room. That's a great way to celebrate being seniors without breaking any rules. They should be content to have the little things like that.
I have been stricken with senioritis, and i feel great!!!
"Remember, Tomorrow is promised to no one." Walter Payton