BACK TO NEWS | 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. Click to read the entire article NYT Article, 712K |