Put the Gap in “Gap Year”
By: Shelbie Martin
When we are in kindergarten we think we have it all figured
out. We want to be teachers, doctors, firemen, policeman, astronauts, actors or
even fishermen. But, when we are asked that very same question senior year of
high school the crickets begin to chirp.
In today’s world, it is becoming the standard to graduate
from high school and for students to be prepared to take the next step in their
life. They are expected to have their bags packed and to leave their homes to
start college the upcoming fall.
High school seniors are being pushed by the staff in their
school, their teachers, their activities or athletic directors, their peers,
and their families to put in application after application to get that “we are
pleased to inform you that your application to blah blah blah university has
ben accepted.” These students are then forced to make some of the biggest
decisions of their life.
These students are left on their own to decided where to go
to school, what to study, and ultimately the rest of their life at the age of
18.
We are asking teenagers and young adults who must raise
their hands to ask for permission to go to the bathroom to decide what to do
with the rest of their lives when all they care about is the next “promposal”
is going to hit.
Why are we encouraging high school seniors to rush off to
college when they are not ready? Why are we setting them up for failure?
I believe that in the United States of America we should be
encouraging students to take “the gap year” much as they do in Europe.
“Gap year?” “What is a gap year?”
A gap year is a time in which a senior who just graduated
from college takes a typical academic year off before attending college. The
students are allowed the time that they need to figure out whom they are and
what they want to be without the added stress that typically comes along with
the education setting.
During the year off from secondary education to
post-secondary education students will typically spend time traveling abroad,
volunteering with nonprofit groups, picking up a part time job or all three. Ultimately,
they are taking a break from the traditional academic track and deciding where
to go from there.
I mean come on these students were just in a classroom for 7
hours a day for the past 13+ years.
According to research from the National Association for
College Admissions Counseling, taking a gap year ultimately helps a student
have success in college. The gap year allows a student to be more focused,
mature, and motived for their undergraduate experience.
Taking a gap year has many added benefits for students. In a
study conducted by the American Gap Association, there were many benefits
student stated that had from taking the gap year.
These benefits were academic benefits such as learning to
work in groups, solving issues with academic burn out, re-igniting a sense of
curiosity for learning, gaining the mindset to go to college with a purpose, gaining
practical field experience and so much more.
The students who took a gap year also saw many personal
benefits. These benefits were things like cross-cultural understanding,
creative problem solving, evaluating person values, creating own version of
success and so much more.
One of the main benefits of the gap year that was common
among most of these student was saving money to pay for their college career as
well as taking the time that they needed to deiced what to major in.
Taking a gap year has been on the rise in the United Stated
with even iconic students in the media such as Malia Obama ready to take
advantage of the gap year.
We should be pushing our high school seniors to take
advantage of the gap year. We should be encouraging them early on to take the
year off of academic. We should do this so when asked what they want to be when
they grow up the crickets wont chirp, but rather passion will fill the room.
