As a senior, I’m incredibly thankful to the school for giving all of us the opportunity to go out on internships.

But, that does not mean that this privilege solely benefits upperclassmen.  Far from it.

To some degree, the program also serves the administration’s interest in keeping order and reducing their need to dole out “appropriate” punishments for troublemaking. It is a truth well-accepted that increased rambunctiousness and a generally heightened disregard for rules often accompany the seniors into their final semester at Staples. However, it is somewhat ironic that, to combat these tendencies, the school threatens to continue educating us.

Oftentimes, in order to dissuade an overly disruptive or risky senior prank, or to fight absenteeism and incongruous out-of-school behavior, the administration reminds the upperclassmen that, despite their college acceptances, they do, in fact, have something to lose: their internships. That one chance at a month’s extra freedom.

In creating this carrot of liberty, the school has established an effective means of resolving disciplinary issues and suppressing inappropriate action. Sadly, by second semester senior year, the tried-and-true method of simply telling students to do or not do something becomes less effective because of the aforementioned sense of rowdiness that permeates the senior class in the weeks leading up to graduation.

At the same time, more draconian techniques, involving suspension and other harsh sanctions, while still applicable, tend to be less attractive for administrators, who do not want to imperil a senior’s future and have an interest in getting them “over the finish line” if at all possible.

The option to instead use the removal of an internship as a punishment strikes a great balance between the school’s usual “soft” and “hard” disciplinary techniques, as it does not have the portentous (and, indeed, parent-involving) impact of harsher penalties but still inspires enough fear in seniors to get them to fall in line.

In this sense, the internship serves the administration as a beautiful tool for maintaining a semblance of order and propriety amongst the seniors. We can’t miss too many classes, we can’t get in any kind of serious extra-scholastic trouble, and we can’t be excessively disruptive to the operation of Staples.

Otherwise, there’s an annoying, confining, and painful consequence waiting for us that we know the school will have no qualms about dishing out, because it simply constitutes the loss of a privilege. Nothing grave is at stake on paper or with regard to our futures. But quite a lot is at stake in our fun-loving hearts. This is why the internship functions so well as a means of control: no one wants to lose their shot at escaping early, but at the same time, no one will have their disciplinary record and/or future prospects significantly effected by the loss of a few weeks freedom.

With this in mind, the whole system surrounding the internship sounds like a pretty good deal to me, for all those involved. The kids get to go have fun, while the administration gets the peace they want and gets most of the slackin’ seniors out of the school.