Seniors Struggling with Senior Slack

As the 2018-2019 school year moves along NUHS seniors are getting more and more impatient to graduate. “Senior Slack” has become a common term among seniors, a term describing the lack of motivation to complete school work or study. We decided to look into this – is Senior Slack an actual problem? Or is it just an excuse that seniors decided to use?

The concept has many different names, but NUHS has taken a liking to Senior Slack. Other names for this “condition” include Senioritis, Senior Slide, Senior Slump, and Senior Syndrome. Senior Slack can range in severity. Some students come down with a major case of procrastination where others don’t turn in any work at all. Taking so called “easy” classes is another symptom of senior slack.

It seems no one is immune to this condition and the farther along the year gets the more severe the case is. Students of all types come down with Senior Slack, even A students who are on top of the ball start to procrastinate and cut down their study time. Students who struggled to find the motivation to turn in assignments before senior year might not bother to turn them in at all.

Seniors often have the attitude that they already got accepted into college therefore they do not need to work to improve their GPA. Another thought that is shared is that the student is not failing so they will graduate no matter what, why bother with small assignments. These thoughts can be extremely dangerous, because colleges are not the only thing that looks at GPA. Seniors can be putting their scholarship eligibility at risk when they succumb to Senior Slack.

We decided to talk to some of the infected. We asked seniors Wyatt Roberts and Izzie Wolkow about their experience with senior slack. Both Wyatt and Izzie agreed that senior slack is most definitely a real thing. When asked how senior slack has impacted them Izzie said, “I do not have any motivation to do any of my homework so I procrastinate to the last minute a lot”. After hearing this comment from Izzie, Wyatt said “Procrastination is King”. 

We also wanted to see Senior Slack from the eyes of a teacher. We interviewed Mr. Anderson to see his thoughts on the subject. When asked the question ¨Is Senior Slack a real thing or is it just an excuse that seniors use?¨ He said, “Of course it is a real thing. And I am sure if you ask any senior they will agree. You can see it in most seniors, some show it right when they walk in the doors on the first day of school and others take some time to show it.¨ Mr. Anderson is not discouraged by it though. He said, ¨Most seniors earn a bit of leeway, but some kids can take it way too far.¨