More than a rumor, more than a rare phenomenon, it is an epidemic that sweeps every upperclassman in high school when spring sets in. You know what it is, because you have heard upperclassmen and faculty speak of it for years: it is the crippling disease, senioritis.

           Senioritis is actually defined in the Merriam-Webster dictionary as “an ebbing of motivation and effort by school seniors as evidenced by tardiness, absences, and lower grades.” To paraphrase, the closer graduation gets, the less seniors seem to care about school. While I can’t deny that this has been apparent in many of my peers, I believe that senioritis should be less of a problem than it is: less of an actual phenomenon, senioritis is merely a reflection of the attitudes of those around us.

           Junior year, if I didn’t do my homework, my teachers would be surprised, and I would receive a late grade. I would be the only one of my peers who didn’t turn in the assignment. But since I stepped across that threshold as a senior, I have a built in, catch all excuse for any laziness or procrastination. Any time I do not complete an assignment, for whatever reason, it is brushed off by those around me, and by myself, as senioritis.

           On the first day of one of my second semester classes, my teacher informed us, quite bluntly, that second semester seniors were some of the most useless creatures ever to walk the halls of a school. We were told by our instructor that he knows that we are not going to complete our assignments, and that he basically expects us to turn things in late, if at all, because “that’s just how seniors are”. That certainly does not make me anxious to finish my homework on time in that class, because it is not expected of me like it has been in the past.

           It goes beyond the influence of teachers, however. Other students, particularly former seniors, are just as much to blame. The concept that it is excusable to have terrible study habits senior year has been planted in our brains since we were freshmen listening to our senior friends complain about “senioritis.” Because of this, what could be a bit of laziness or a single skipped assignment becomes a full-blown case of “senioritis” in our brains.

           If no one had ever told me about “senioritis,” I believe that I would be much more committed to school than I am. I don’t deny that especially in this last semester, it is easier and easier to blow off my homework until the morning of, or the class period before. However, those around me not only excuse, but condone my procrastination, simply because slacking off is expected of seniors.

           If teachers and students continue to acknowledge and accommodate “senioritis”, it will continue to be a problem. Why would students bother doing their work on time if they know their teachers don’t expect them to complete it?  If senior teachers were as strict as other grade levels, and seniors acknowledged that “senioritis” is not an inevitable disease, this epidemic sweeping our halls would be a minor problem at most.

To read about how senioritis has affected some juniors