<p>Driving back from my usual friday run to pick up hubster from the airport we chatted happily… </p>
<p>Oh, work was blah, blah, blah. I spoke with The Boy, it’s cold in Charlotte, blah, blah, blah. I got the taxes and the FAFSA filed and the new toilets are blah, blah, blah. How’s D handling her waitlist status? Oh, I think she’s okay, but I have that weird feeling that senioritis (See above mentioned Boy) could rear it’s ugly head. </p>
<p>The speech bubble was probably still hanging over the 10 freeway on saturday night when the senioritis not only reared it’s ugly head, it got up on all fours! I wouldn’t want to bore and/or inspire anyone with the details. Let’s just say lying and lawlessness were not what I ordered for dessert on saturday night. So, we’ve had our share of raised voices, tears and general sharing of anxieties (hers, mine and ours). </p>
<p>The upside, I think there was some degree of communication that we were thinking/hoping/dreaming/wishing we could tap dance our way around during this marvelous thing called waitlist purgatory, and now it’s been said. So, I guess the moral to my tale is if you have any mother’s and/or father’s intuition about your S or D, you’re probably right. I don’t really know what to do to avert a senioritis attack, but forewarned is forearmed.</p>
<p>Ah, my eldest avoided any police involvement, but the last three months were pure hell in terms of attitude and emotions and, oh yeah, not working up to one’s potential…in a school where finals are 50% of your senior mark for the year!</p>
<p>I will just encourage you that the attitude was completely turned around once she began university…maybe that was getting far away from me, as everything bad in her life those past months was definitely MY fault ;)</p>
<p>As long as kids aren’t failing or close to it, why does it matter if they get low second semester grades (waitlist situations excluded)? There is 0 reason to work hard for the sake of working hard, and getting good grades when they won’t benefit you is doing just that.</p>
<p>One of the best things my son did was scale back his last trimester classes (no more APs and several special-interest courses like a stage technician class). The pressure was off, his grades stayed high, and he had plenty of time to do his senioritis thing.</p>
<p>Excellence in what? Arbitrarily chosen subjects that aren’t going to be significantly useful to you later in life? There is no reason to excel when there is no benefit. Excellence only matters when it produces results; no one admires the most excellent paperclip bender or box opener in the world.</p>
<p>If you need AP credit or a grade to graduate, then yes, excellence matters. If you’re in college and can get by with C’s and easy classes, then why not? Working hard is good, but ONLY when it produces results. Hard work for the sake of hard work is simply grinding gears against each other; it just wears them down.</p>
<p>Excellence is ITS OWN benefit - one that comes from effort, discipline, and overcoming difficulties and occurs regardless of any other tangible objective or reward.</p>
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<p>Because then you’d be a lazy slacker with no self respect. Work is like an athletic workout - it makes you strong and capable; it keeps you sharp. Taking the slacker route makes you dull, weak, and indolent. If you prefer dullness, weakness, and indolence, be my guest.</p>
<p>I agree courer! There is something to be said for personal integrity. Goes to your character and defines who you are. You don’t do the right thing because you will get something out of it, you do the right thing because it is the right thing TO DO. This principle isn’t just applied to school work and grades but to how you choose to live your life.</p>
<p>All I can say from 55 years of life experience is that the times I coasted along, just doing enough to “get by” are the most forgettable parts of my life, while those times I was pouring every bit of effort into what I was doing were both fun and memorable.</p>
<p>And you literally never know when some at-the-time-seemingly-pointless bit of knowledge will turn out to be handy, or even critical. Knowledge for knowledge’s sake - what a concept!</p>
<p>Academics are only one part of education. Pride in your work is something you should have for the rest of your life - in everything you do. Besides, you never know what tiny bit of info will stick with you and help you in the future, or pique your interest in something new.</p>
<p>Just because you don’t go all out for meaningless schoolwork doesn’t mean you “coast by” in your entire life. It is simply refocusing your energy and efforts; you cannot give 100% to everything because time and energy are finite and limited quantities. So you go get C’s in school and put your effort into having the most insane weekends, into being in brutally good shape, into whatever else you like to do. Excellence should be applied to things that reap rewards.</p>
<p>And doing the right thing does not mean going lal out in everything. There is no moral or ethical reason that you need to do well in school, especially when it doesn’t matter whether you end up with an A, a C, or an F. I’m not advocating doing the wrong thing for some personal gain - I said it doesn’t matter whether you work hard or not when it won’t produce benefits, not that you should go steal from people or kill babies.</p>
<p>Finally, I do hope you all realize that “excellence” is a continuum - everyone makes tradeoffs every day. Unless you are not sleeping, working 24/7 and not socializing or stopping for one second, you are not giving 100% and you are not being as excellent as you could be. Anything less is saying that more work than X amount isn’t worth its benefits. Everyone does things that benefit them in some way; it is how humans make decisions. And before you say that some sacrifice for others and break this mold, keep in mind that they do so because it makes them feel good - and they thusly derive benefit from doing so.</p>
<p>lucifer11287 - how can I be sure you’re not one of my kids, sneaking onto CC when I’m not looking? Because this is starting to sound awfully familiar… Seriously, my sons have explained to me how doing one bit of extra work beyond the absolute minimum necessary to achieve the highest grade believed to be reasonably accessible in a class is, like, a crime against nature. Once they realized that most of the colleges they would be applying to didn’t count +'s and -'s the goal immediately shifted to getting the minimum possible score that would yield an A- or B-. It’s a fine line, unfortuantely, between an A- and a B+, as they learned on a couple of occasions…</p>
<p>Personally, I see no need to go all out 100% for everything. You’ll burn out. However, I also believe that a complete submission to Senioritis is not a good thing either. This is definitely a time in life to start learning how to walk that fine line. But to go back to the original post, this case of senioritis involved “lying and lawlessness”. As a parent, I’d hate to see any kid’s future jeopardized by poor decision-making.</p>
<p>all you parents need to chill about “senioritis.” do you realize how boring school is now? do you realize that the daily grind is 100X worse now that your sons and daughters have nothing to work for? </p>
<p>as im a senior now, this is the time that im going to take more time to explore what i want to explore. im reading more outside of school books now than i usually do during the school year, im finding more time to play my guitar, write poetry and songs, and other general things that i actually find fun.</p>
<p>excellence for the sake of excellence could be one of the most pompous and unnecessary things ive ever heard of. great, go pat yourself on the back cause you spent 5 hours studying for some exam that doesnt matter at this point. i studied 1 hour, got one full letter grade worse than you, and used those other 4 hours to do something else just as arbitrary. </p>
<p>i assume if youre on this message board, youre either a smart student or parents of a smart student. give them a break, i know i wish my parents would. if you look at it cumulatively, if your future ivy league/top LAC student got straight a’s or something the first semester, getting straight c’s would bring the grade to a b average (OH NO! A B!). </p>
<p>Yeah, and getting all those Cs will also get your acceptance rescinded from many top colleges. I know of a kid who got into Yale EA and then got rescinded for getting two Cs, much less straight Cs or a B average. The top schools are looking for straight A or near-straight A students and that’s what they expect to get. If you prefer another, easier path, go for it. Enjoy your slacker life - you will have earned it.</p>
<p>Timothy’sMonster- I posted previously (see post #9) about personal integrity. You posted for parents to “chill”.You also posted in another thread that involved cheating and your response was:</p>
<p>“id ask to be involved in the cheating. only if i knew no one else would find out.”</p>
<p>Senioritis really hits hard after ap exams. last year, all my courses were AP…that last month of school was the most pointless waste of time that i’ve ever been through. You see, the teachers didn’t want to be there - they had nothing to teach and the students didn’t want to be there - there was nothing for them to learn. So what did we do? We sat…watched movies…played video games…</p>
<p>I’d like to think that my post ap senioritis was justified.</p>
Seriously, my sons have explained to me how doing one bit of extra work beyond the absolute minimum necessary to achieve the highest grade believed to be reasonably accessible in a class is, like, a crime against nature. Once they realized that most of the colleges they would be applying to didn’t count +'s and -'s the goal immediately shifted to getting the minimum possible score that would yield an A- or B-. It’s a fine line, unfortuantely, between an A- and a B+, as they learned on a couple of occasions…</p>