“You are failing,” is certainly not a phrase many want to hear, especially when it comes to high school grades. It seems this is the reality, however, for an unfortunate percentage of this year’s freshman class at LHS.

Around ten percent, or nearly 60 freshmen are on course to fail the year, with grades low enough to warrant anxiety in the minds of staff members. New strategies are being implemented to get these students back on track. One such action is to take some of these kids out of one class in order to make them complete missing work. The hope is that by forcing them to finish x amount of assignments in a compact amount of time it will leave them with only one more task to finish from the period they missed.

I’m wary of what results this program might produce. While in theory, this allows for more to be accomplished, but one crucial element has yet to have been addressed: Motivation. For the most part, teachers nurse freshmen into the habits they need in order to complete the grade. All they require in return is some effort. The only conclusion I can draw from this sudden increase in projected failures is that those freshmen have an unprecedented lack of determination.

The root of enthusiasm is incentive; there has to be a reason for people to want to pursue something. It seems that in defining looser reasons to believe in schooling, the 60 kids don’t find class as attractive or important in the long run. Education is a right, not a privilege to them.

This is not to say I hate freshmen or believe the attempts to reinstill their academic careers are ludicrous; I just see it differently. These freshman don’t have a reason to give their efforts to it and until they have one, they will continue down this path.