Demolishment of Senior Year

Is Senior Year Just a Big Festivity and a Waste of Time?
By Ingy Fahmy

When senior year rolls, most students around the globe just want to relax and enjoy what remains of the rest of their high school career. After working hard for three years, taking tests, completing projects, and preparing for college admission. Starting December, senioritis starts kicking in, and seniors start leading a different high school experience than the rest of their years at high school.
By the time the final year of your high school career comes around, a lot of the students are one step ahead of the game with enough credits to graduate that they no longer take their school work seriously. Many seniors decide to opt for different things that might please them in ways school work will not, such as: having work experience before heading off to college, studying subjects that will be taught in college, or simply taking the year off and making the most memories possible of what is left of their time in high school.
The reason senior year is associated with slacking off and the infamous disease of “senioritis” is because many colleges in the United States and colleges that integrate the American system stop looking at students’ grades once they start their final year of schooling. It has been said that the most crucial year of a student’s high school career happens to be junior year; that is the most year colleges look at as a reference to your ability as a student. As a result, students tend to do their best during their junior year and then take senior year as a vacation and give themselves a break from all the hard work they put up in previous years.
Al Church, the principal of AMES Charter School in Salt Lake City, said, “Educators have worried about it for probably 40 years – what to do with 12th grade?” Some concerned individuals, such as Church, have suggested many different ways to tackle this endless obstacle. One of the more noticeable methods included the proposal of eliminating senior year altogether and it could save up to $60 million in some states. Another option would be to get a jumpstart on college credits; students in the 11th and 12th grades could start attending classes in colleges where they would receive college credits and in return save up to $3,000 in college tuition. Finally, eight American states are launching a pilot program where they will allow students as early as during their sophomore year to graduate and attend college.
“Let’s go to a system where if you finish early you can go and if you need more time you can stay”, said Daniel Domenech, the executive director of the American Association of School Administrators. But the dilemma or the risk of sending a student off to college before their completion of senior year is one that is debatable because students need to reach a certain emotional and maturity levels before starting their first year in college. That final year of high school is as essential as any other year. It might not hold the academic gravitas as any other year, but it is certainly a vital step and transition into moving to a different educational environment. Seniors and teenagers in general will always find a way to relax, enjoy, and not work, so if senior year is demolished then who knows, the disease might be renamed to being “junioritis” or even “sophomoritis”. The game is endless.