Editor’s Note: Senioritis may be a chance for a new perspective

By Austin Siegemund-Broka
Editor-in-Chief

Senioritis is a term often kicked around. Most times it is used in jest among students, a nudge-and-wink recognition that their peers just want to relax when second semester hits. Lately, it has begun to enter the vernacular of teachers, administrators and even those pesky college emails.

But where does senioritis come from? I’m reluctant to go all metaphysical on this one, but the more I have reflected on my impending graduation, the more I have realized that senioritis is the after-effect of a no-longer-applicable goal.

“Getting into a good college” would probably rank very, very highly among phrases most commonly spoken by Mira Costa underclassmen. Due to an abundance of factors, getting into college has become the one and only goal for many high school students.

I mean to cast no blame on them; a year ago I was one of them. While not an easy goal to achieve, admission to a university of one’s choice is an easy goal to understand: get A’s, pursue extracurriculars, test well. The steps are a lot less abstract, so it’s easier to reward oneself for success.

But is this really a beneficial mindset for students? The key to gaining the most of education is training ourselves to learn for learning’s sake. It is a more abstract outlook, but also a more valuable one.

If we focus our high school learning entirely on getting into a good school, we will most likely focus our collegiate learning entirely on getting into a career we think we want.

The high school mindset of “getting into a good school” trains students to pursue concretely-defined goals. Rather than utilizing the huge wealth of knowledge that colleges offer, students often end churning through their required classes.

Granted, a focus on an aspiration or course of study is not a bad thing, just as pushing oneself to take hard classes is not a bad thing in high school.

The pity, though, is that students have learned to see high school as a simple stepping stone to college and may then see college as no more than a stepping stone to a career. They will miss out on important knowledge.

Unfortunately, the factors do still exist that make college such a crucial element of today’s society. It would be ridiculous to ask students to change their philosophy on high school, trading in high-powered AP classes for some good old personal growth.

Without a wholesale change of the country’s education system, it would be detrimental to our underclassmen’s futures to move any one school toward abstract development.

So in the end, it all comes back to the bizarre limbo of the second semester senior. While this time has become a period for goofing off, seniors may benefit from considering it a time to change their focus.

After completing the journey toward college decisions, seniors must consciously change their mindsets, to stop simply checking off requirements. We must move toward learning for learning’s sake.