Many of our school’s activities seem to be experiencing a steady decline of student interest. Whether these activities are clubs, school dances, or otherwise, general enthusiasm for school activities appears to be down.
We admit that we don’t have the hard numbers to back up this claim, but no doubt club leaders, chaperones, and even some teachers would attest to the fact that kids just don’t seem to care anymore. For example, World Affairs Club, once a fairly popular club, now has meetings with rarely more than six students. Pop Culture Club, which also started out with a reasonably strong following, has fizzled out in terms of student interest as well. Scholium, too, is experiencing an uncharacteristically low number of seniors, both as editors and as consistent writers. And no junior will forget how difficult it was to find willing participants for this past Spirit Week’s tug-of-war competition–a notable exception to this lack of enthusiasm of course being the senior class’s ‘crime of passion’ in the junior lounge following the dodgeball contest.
Photo Courtesy of Tabula Yearbook
Another unfortunate example of apathy is the lack of participation in our community service projects. Involvement has been stifled as students find themselves busier and caring less. Chris Stein ’15 addressed the low interest in service, noting, “the complain that we get most of the time is that the events aren’t well publicized, but I think that an excuse for people not having the time or not being interested…People might hypothetically want to do service, but…when it’s not readily available or easy for them, they just won’t do it.”
Furthermore, the one school dance we had this year, the Sadie Hawkins Snow Ball, exemplifies this culture of apathy. Of the 520-some Upper School students, only 150 or so ended up going, making a disappointing attendance of just 30%. What’s worse, those who were present created an atmosphere less fitting of a relaxed Upper School dance and more of an awkward Middle School ‘FNL’ during which people kind of just wander around or stand with their feet planted firmly on the ground.
In general, the lack of passion typical of a second semester senior has spread through the entire Upper School, and it is the position of Scholium that it is now time we kill this culture of not caring. We urge students to utilize their limited free time to find clubs, organizations, and school activities that lay within their realm of interest.
That said, it’s also the opinion of this staff that joining a club for the sole purpose of adding another extra-curricular to your resume is just as bad, if not worse, than not joining at all. Though this may seem contradictory to our appeal to you to get involved, we want you to be involved with sincere interest, not with the superficial, shallow intention of building up a transcript. Really, it’s sad when kids only do something because they feel it is an unspoken requirement.
You’ve been told this a thousand times, but let this be the 1001st; an appeal to all you seemingly disinterested students: get interested and get involved. At risk of sounding like a cheap ad for EA or a self-serving call for Scholium writers, we nevertheless implore you to join a club, sign up for community service, submit to Epolitan, do something, because in the end, you will regret what you didn’t do so much more than what you did do.