Have you ever “forgotten” to do something? We certainly have.  For example, this Scroll article (sorry layout folks).

This brings us to a problem plaguing our world; procrastination.You know it. You’ve met it. You’re probably best friends with it! Whether it is with Facebook, Tumblr, Buzzfeed, Twitter, Netflix, out of class reading, Youtube, friends, crying in a dark room, social life, or even--god forbid--cleaning, people from all over are procrastinating right this very minute.  But why procrastinate? After all, if you get things done early, there’s more time for all of that fun stuff!

There are the obvious reasons such as boredom and disinterest or simply losing track of time. However, an increasingly frequent reason for procrastinating in students is a feeling that the work is menial at best, or that the hole dug through procrastination can NEVER BE ESCAPED FROM (but seriously, run).

Perhaps this is coming simply from the perspective of two upperclassmen.  The impending college doom deadlines, pressure of AP tests, SAT, ACT, and increased study of obscure philosophy definitely gives that dark tint to things.

But what if this is a side effect of the system?  Pressure on tests makes homework seem less significant. With homework usually counting for less than 20 percent of the grade, why do it?

However, all those low grades in the gradebook always seems to pull people into the void of failure.  It is now far enough into the proficiency system that we can begin to see some of its impacts, and this may be one of them.  By making things so that students are encouraged to focus on assessments rather than practice, and asking them to make the effort to come to extra practice times--something which often makes students avoid exactly that to evade the criticism of their teacher on a more individualized basis--students have even more ability to procrastinate.

At the end of first semester, everyone frantically tries to pull things together, only to lose it all again once met with the security of having months before the next deadline.  It is hard to resist this urge to relax into the new semester, or to try to stick it to the man and show that a system isn’t working by more consciously procrastinating--maybe that’s just us--but it is an urge that ultimately only hurts one person.  You.

This semester, try to stick it to procrastination instead.  

Good luck to you all.