Senioritis Monday Strikes Again
In what's threatening to become an every-Monday theme, yet another national college admissions-blogger has weighed in on the topic of senioritis. This time it's our good friend at the Huffington Post Karen Stabiner (author of 8 books!), and like Karen Kasdin before her she's decided to come down on the side of "who cares?" It's certainly a valid point which bears repeating, but after looking through two blog posts on this subject there is an interesting theme that is developing.
While both Stabiner and Kasdin write to poke holes in the myth that senioritis is the worst possible thing that could ever happen ever, neither does so in a way which does anything to dislodge the context from which this line of thought is produced. Neither speaks against the argument that students should focus on their classwork out of respect for their teachers who have set up a lesson plan that goes until the end of their year, or their fellow students (particularly if they're in some sort of elective class that might include students from other grade levels). They both say that realistically students need not worry about the ramifications of receiving a detested B in their Double-Secret, Honors, AP, Advanced M.B.A.-level Metaphysics of Calculus course in the eyes of a non-existent, over-zealous college admissions officials. (No word on whether or not they say that students need to worry about becoming lazy and submitting schlocky, aggressively-run-on sentences because they can't think of anything funny to say).
However, what they don't say in their "it's okay for seniors to take the occasional deep breath in their final semester of high school" message, is that it might be okay for them to take a deep breath earlier in the process as well. College is great and wonderful and the key to your future and all that business, but it's not the only thing in the world that matters. When you graduate you'll probably find that the ratio of important life skills to useless higher level crap you've attained in both high school and college will be roughly equal. And weighted way, waaaaay heavier on the side of useless higher level crap.
While it's nice that both are reputable authors (unlike the dickhead bringing you this swill) working to debunk the notion of senioritis as some kind of incurable character flaw, it's annoying that they miss the point that high school, for all its cartoonish angst and pubescent awkwardness, doesn't simply have to be seen as a means to an end. And while no one wants to end up like Uncle Rico (or anyone whose glory days have occurred before age 18), sometimes its worth remembering that while college is important, it's not everything.
While both Stabiner and Kasdin write to poke holes in the myth that senioritis is the worst possible thing that could ever happen ever, neither does so in a way which does anything to dislodge the context from which this line of thought is produced. Neither speaks against the argument that students should focus on their classwork out of respect for their teachers who have set up a lesson plan that goes until the end of their year, or their fellow students (particularly if they're in some sort of elective class that might include students from other grade levels). They both say that realistically students need not worry about the ramifications of receiving a detested B in their Double-Secret, Honors, AP, Advanced M.B.A.-level Metaphysics of Calculus course in the eyes of a non-existent, over-zealous college admissions officials. (No word on whether or not they say that students need to worry about becoming lazy and submitting schlocky, aggressively-run-on sentences because they can't think of anything funny to say).
However, what they don't say in their "it's okay for seniors to take the occasional deep breath in their final semester of high school" message, is that it might be okay for them to take a deep breath earlier in the process as well. College is great and wonderful and the key to your future and all that business, but it's not the only thing in the world that matters. When you graduate you'll probably find that the ratio of important life skills to useless higher level crap you've attained in both high school and college will be roughly equal. And weighted way, waaaaay heavier on the side of useless higher level crap.
While it's nice that both are reputable authors (unlike the dickhead bringing you this swill) working to debunk the notion of senioritis as some kind of incurable character flaw, it's annoying that they miss the point that high school, for all its cartoonish angst and pubescent awkwardness, doesn't simply have to be seen as a means to an end. And while no one wants to end up like Uncle Rico (or anyone whose glory days have occurred before age 18), sometimes its worth remembering that while college is important, it's not everything.
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