There is a reoccurring illness that seems to roam within the student body each year. It tends to travel from one student to another, and once a student catches this disease, it rapidly swells. This virus doesn’t particularly go away easily, and you’d think that with such a common, reoccurring contagion, the school could find a cure to this. Although, a remedy isn’t as feasible as people may think. As the school year goes by, more and more students get caught with this ailment. It goes by many different names. An epidemic of laziness, poor time management, and— some call it a plead for help.
It is no secret that each student has an independent mind with personal thoughts. The wit of each scholar embraces different goals and desires, academic or not. This also means their priorities differ, and they decide what is important to them and what can be pushed to the side. High schoolers are at the age where they are figuring out what accounts as vital to their success. Though, students who are unable to forge this guide on their own, may see themselves fall behind the rest of the crowd. We see procrastination getting the best of students each year and becomes even more prominent when a student has more than just coursework to manage.
Students like Isabela Rodriguez ’24 who participate in extra-curricular activities get hit additionally more with the burden of work piling on top of their other responsibilities.
“It does get hard from time to time. You must find the right balance and time. It’s like dividing your time. As a theater student, I must split how many hours I work on theater, then when I get home, how long I’ll spend on homework,” Rodriguez said. “I am a big procrastinator myself, and I would say near the end of the year, it tends to be busiest with all the exams and testing.”
Rodriguiz went on to add how she prevents procrastination by planning and scheduling out when she will work on homework.
“Get a planner, and see how much homework you have each day, write it down, and then, predict how long it’s going to take you, so that you’re able to have your days planned out ahead of time,” Rodriguez said.
Understandably, students have had to maneuver through different ways of managing their amounts of work. Evens so, procrastination may be avoidable if a solid routine is established through the day. English teacher Angel Favazza said students have learned to recognize this and considered their own ways of balancing time regarding work, whether it be school or clubs. Teachers also acknowledge the gravity of managing responsibilities that students occupy.
“It’s about time management. Bad time management is a significant mistake students tend to make that causes them to be behind,” Favazza said. “Also, taking on too many responsibilities is another root to this. They need to be able to work a schedule around their other responsibilities whether its work or family. It all comes down to a matter of will and motivation, and that’s something that each person must come up with on their own. You must have a reason, if it’s important to you, you’re going to do it. If it’s not important to you, you’re not going to.”
Teachers’ like Favazza regularly see students varying from either most productive, or students who don’t engage in most, if not all lessons. Many teachers notice this growing trend of students lacking the motivation to do any type of classwork and is creating an immense concern in the education realm.
Counselor Delaney Sullivan said they notice an uptick at the beginning of the year with students trying to maintain their grades but if there’s a setback students will get behind and often it’s difficult to catch up.
“I think students sometimes have a hard time finding why school is important, and they lose sight of the bigger picture on why they do schoolwork,” Sullivan said. “When you dig deeper than just the piled work, you learn that some of these kids struggle with strong mental health or home life problems, which is a big factor to consider when looking at their lack of productivity.”
Understanding that there is a deeper iceberg to this than just laziness, may be an important piece to finding out how to combat chronic procrastination. Many students struggle, and not just with schoolwork Sullivan added. They struggle with personal issues that teachers may not know about. Grades are sacrificed and the constant downfall of scores only add to this stress held by students. This ultimately decreases their motivation on top of their pre-existing procrastination, and makes their avoidance grow as they do not want to face the reality of the situation. The lack of academic motivation can cause an influx of complications with the future of students if the problems aren’t solved before it is too late.
“A lot of students don’t want to show up to school or even face their grades,” Sullivan said. “A big problem with some of these students is that they have a hard time trying to align their present to their future goals and understand why this is important to do for their future. And of course, there are the students that just push off the schoolwork regardless.”