Remember that day last winter when students had to take a state-wide engagement survey during first period on a B day?

Recently, the results came in and out of the three schools in the 4A district, SHS ranks last in overall student engagement in school with 40.3% of students saying they are engaged while Moscow had the highest percentage with 44.2% and Lakeland with the second best at 41.8%.

So the question is, why is Sandpoint’s engagement the lowest in the district?

Educational Assistant and science teacher Mike Martz thinks there’s biology behind why the majority of high schoolers are not engaged in school.

“I think all of the biology of the changes of hormones and growing and social situations make [teenagers] insanely preoccupied with things that are not school,” explained Martz.

Besides biology, Martz also went on to state that whether the material is meaningful or not has a huge impact on being engaged.

“They have a hard time connecting with it being meaningful for them, so they’re like, “this is lame.” Of course if you think something is lame, you’re not engaged in it,” said Martz.

On the other hand, junior Ben Wikoff, who says he’s mostly engaged in school, explains what can impact his engagement level.

“There are classes that are easier to be engaged in and harder to be engaged in. Sometimes, the difference can be the classmates and sometimes, it can be the teachers,” claimed Wikoff.

Ultimately, it comes down to the grades Wikoff wants to obtain. Wikoff said, “I want to get good grades and I realize that it’s easier to do when I’m engaged.”