Fighting
That Contagion of the Classroom, Senioritis
by Marek Fuchs
Published
June 18, The New York Times. Reprinted with Permission
Instead of coasting through the final weeks of her senior year in
high school, Greer Lanzet is fine-tuning punch lines and working
on a stand-up routine.
Andrew
Feldman, a Scarsdale High School classmate, is learning to play
the sitar, while other seniors are working alongside nurses and
cooks.
The
goal of such projects is to keep students engaged and ward off the
traditional senior slump, also known as senioritis. It's symptoms
flare the moment college acceptances arrive, and they include lackadaisical
effort in all things academic.
More
and more schools are reacting to senioritis in innovative ways.
Last month, the New Jersey Department of Education assembled dozens
of schools to exchange ideas about what initiatives work and what
do not.
One
of the oldest programs intended specifically to fight senioritis
was created at Woodlands High School in Hartsdale, N.Y., in 1973
when experiential learning was in vogue. The program, the WISE Individualized
Senior Experience, is now running in 60 schools in more than a dozen
states, said Victor Leviatin, a founder and president of the nonprofit
organization.
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