T.S. Eliot said in his seminal poem, that April is the cruelest month. Seniors might beg to differ. April was difficult. The emotional turmoil of waiting for the last of college decisions was certainly grueling.
By the time the first of May had come and gone, Seniors had finalized their intentions for higher education and the next year. It looked like smooth sailing until the doors closed behind the Uni High Class of 2012 for the last time.
Oops, we forgot all about Senior Portfolios. Although some students had turned in their portfolios early, May was the hard deadline for Senior Portfolios without which graduation is impossible. Okay, portfolios done. All good.
Then, wham! Bam - AP exams. Yes, that is a little detail that people, especially Seniors, tend to overlook. After a whole year of brain-busting homework and studying into the early morning, how could one possibly forget mid-May and the standardized test? So, two more weeks of cramming, emotional distress, sleep deprivation, and less-than-nutritional uptake, and the AP exams were no doubt aced. Done, right? Uh, no.
Seniors counting on a cruise toward June and graduation were wrong, wrong, wrong. Teachers are just now assigning three hundred point projects and starting new novels. It seems as if no one told the teachers that the seniors were done. Seniors seem to think so.
Today in an AP class of 40, a class that is supposed to be populated by self-motivated overachievers, only one student had her homework. One. Which is not to say that the students are lazy or disobedient or that this behavior will reflect their exam scores when the results come in. They just don’t have anymore to give.
By the time the Seniors finish kicking and screaming their way through May, they’ll be walking up the steps to receive their diplomas. Scratch that. Crawling.