Challenge senior students through final school year

April 20, 2004

A high schooler's senior year: Valuable learning time, or a prolonged, laid-back goodbye to adolescence?

With the end of another school year approaching, we imagine the scenario inside local high schools is the same as it's been for eons - seniors skating through their last few months without a lot of focus, challenge or motivation.

We're not faulting them; hey, we were there once, too. More than a couple of us can remember gazing out of classroom windows, with the teacher's voice a distant mumbling as we anticipated all that was ahead in life.

And by this point, most teens going off to college have already been accepted by their school of choice, so grades may appear not to matter much. Further, there's the very real growing pains of 17- and 18-year-olds eager for adulthood freedoms yet still trapped by the rules of school and parents.


But we think the issue of how schools can make senior year more valuable is an important one to contemplate. Around the country, education experts are looking at ways to make senior year more valuable. Some include eliminating it all together and investing that money in preschool, but that, in our opinion, would turn junior year into senior year and wouldn't solve the problem. Other ideas include adding a year, but that would have the same effect.

Until an answer is reached, we have some thoughts on the subject.

First, it's incumbent upon teachers and administrators to continue demanding high-quality work of students and attendance in class. If they show an attitude indicating senior year really doesn't matter, the students will pick up on it, too. Teachers and administrators need to be role models of high expectations.

Secondly, parents need to step in and make sure their students are continuing to achieve comparable grades, that they're doing their homework and most importantly, showing up for class.

More colleges and universities should consider making ultimate acceptance contingent upon final-semester grade point averages, as some already do.

Students share in this responsibility and must continue to take their grades seriously; prospective employers can check on high school transcripts and easily notice a GPA dive. What type of message does that send about your work ethic?

There should be early graduation or early-out options available for students who have tapped out a school's resources as far as advanced placement courses. A senior shouldn't be stuck in school with credits and requirements fulfilled, taking bowling just to pass time 'til graduation. That's a waste of his or her time and our tax dollars.

We're not saying seniors shouldn't get some breaks; after all, the real world comes knocking pretty fast. We're all only seniors once; it's a unique and fun time. But the requisite slacking and "senioritis" need to be tempered with a good dose of high expectations and encouragement to keep grades and attendance up.

The more than $11 billion, annual taxpayer-funded public education tab in Michigan is too much to let the majority of a year be squandered.

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