This opinion is representative of 12 out of 13 Outlook editors.
It’s not much of a secret—seniors tend to relax more once they finish college applications. This is true not only for Aragon, but also for other high schools in the country. The phenomenon known as “senioritis” is especially detrimental to teachers, who still have to conduct classes despite declining interest from seniors.
One method that some schools use to combat this is the senior project, a year-end project that allows seniors to find a topic of their personal inclination and pursue it. By choosing projects they are truly passionate about, the students will be more motivated to learn. At other schools, these projects have ranged from in-depth research papers to volunteer projects within the community.
Some private schools have the advantage of letting seniors leave school completely and devote entire days to the project without having to worry about homework from other classes. However, since Aragon remains a public school with attendance requirements, most of the project work will need to happen outside of school hours. Aragon students can work around this issue by asking senior teachers to lighten the amount of homework they assign if possible. While AP teachers will still need to adequately prepare their students for the AP tests in May, the two to three weeks after the tests are over is ample time to finish up projects for the final deadline near graduation.
While senior projects may be somewhat difficult to implement, administration should consider adding them to the curriculum because of their benefits, such as allowing students to follow their own learning paths and keeping them from completely disregarding their remaining secondary education.
