What is a Gap Year and Where Did It all Start? Essay

Summer break is supposed to be a time of rest and rejuvenation for students. After nine months of hard work and challenging classes, one would think such a long break could do nothing but good for students; however, this is not the best way for young minds to learn. A three month break is far too long for children to go without proper education and supervision. Instead of a long three month break at the end of each school year, why not give students the same number of days off but spread them out more frequently throughout the year? Year-round education is a more efficient, globally competitive, and fair alternative to the traditional nine month school year.

A large portion of the knowledge gained during the last school year is lost over the long idle months and must be retaught for weeks, which wastes a lot of time that could be spent learning new material. This puts students behind in that year’s curriculum, and over many summers, can add up to students being months or years behind where they would be if no learning was lost. There is a solution to this

Since the student is currently learning some independence, this is a great time where they can get to know themselves better. During a gap year, students have the opportunity to get to know them as well as learn what they want to do in life (Ma, 2014). Back in 2013, there were interviews given to many students at different universities, about their experience with a gap year. A student by the name of Eden Full, Princeton University, stated that since he was young, he was always on the path to success. With a gap year, it had given him time to learn some new skills and explore some new interests that he had never had before (Lazaro, 2013). Another student by the name of Tiffany Yanagida, a computer science major at University of Nebraska-Lincoln, stated that a gap year had given her some time to find out her future career path. This was something that she had no idea about at the young age of 18 (Lazaro, 2013). This is a great time to have fun, build up your social network, and go out and enjoy the world.

A teacher who was part of a year round system recounts, “I found myself going through 3 school years without that opportunity for self-assessment and planning for the future of the educational program.” (“The Effect of Year Round Schools” 1999/22 February 2005). With a much shorter summer break, teachers will not have enough time to increase their education, which can benefit the learning of their students. For these reasons, year round schools are not as beneficial as the traditional school year.

In trying to persuade my skeptical parents that a “gap year” will be beneficial, I will have to establish ethos and appeal to pathos and logos in order to convince them to approve of a “gap year.” To establish ethos, I’d discuss my status as a current student in the high school system, which provides credibility as I have the experience and personal knowledge of the scholastic system to form a trustworthy argument. My appeal to logos would be the use of famous and successful figures of society who took a “gap year” between high school and college. I’d also research statistics on the grade point averages of college students who took a gap year and compare them to those who went straight from high school to college. Lastly, I’d appeal to pathos by addressing the mental and physical strain high school has taken on me and how a gap year will allow not only a de-stress period but also time to explore who I am and the world around me, which will cause my parents to empathize with my scholastic experience.

When I first heard about "impact 360" about a year ago, I will admit that I was fairly opposed to the entire idea of a "Gap Year". From what I had seen, it seemed like an idea someone had come up with, in order to delay the start of the responsibilities of college and life. I ignored the many attempts from my mother and her friend Renee Hernandez, (who is involved with the program), to get me to just look into what it was all about. I wrongly perceived that every gap year program was essentially the same. And from the program's I had looked at they all seemed to be about taking a year off of life's responsibilities, and relaxing with other people your age. That didn't interest me in the slightest, I wanted to graduate high school, and go and conquer college and eventually the world.

It is October 15th. Normally, students would be at school, working for hours on end at math, communication arts, and science. But this year is different. This year your school has now entered into the year-round calendar system. At home, you can enjoy the season of fall with pumpkins, Halloween, and beautiful weather. The idea of year round school has most commonly been pushed aside because of the misconception that it is too much school, or an on-going cycle of learning. However, those who declare this, do not understand the year-round school concept. Year-round school provides the same number of days as the traditional calendar. The difference, which will change our society and the achievement rate of our students in the future, is that the days are reordered into intersessions. The mechanisms of year round school include students attending school for a nine week period, then following this is a three week break. This rotation occurs year-round with a slightly longer summer break. Consequently, Though many people agree with keeping tradition with the popular school calendar, new evidence and testimony proves that year-round school provides the better avenue because the world is evolving, it benefits low income students, and intersessions are more effective than summer break.

It is time to make a decision regarding what to do after high school. The most popular decision is to go right into college. Some students say they would like to take a year off before going to college. This is called a Gap Year, meaning they have a gap in between education. Some do well, and prepare themselves for college, while others do not. Those that do take a year off have time to explore what life has to offer, and takes advantage of the deferment application, become a better person.

Taking a year off may have drawbacks that can affect high school graduates, such as lost momentum, lose focus, and career delay. The first drawback of taking a year off is losing academic momentum. High school graduates who fail to develop important study habits might easily forget the lesson that they learned. Moreover, students become idle academically, which leads to losing of study skills. The second drawback of taking a year off is students losing focus. Once students leave the academic setting and get the taste of the "real world," they may never want to pursue college due to distractions or changes. Students who work love making money and lose sight of the idea of going back to college. Also, students find responsibility that might

The purpose of my speech is providing you with a little information about the benefits of taking a gap year, what it can do to you, and hopefully persuade you into taking one yourself.

Taking a gap year might be a personal consideration but in the end, is it really worth it? A gap year is when students take a year off after high school and don't go straight to college. During the gap year, people usually travel, works, or do something to promote their time off from education. Not many people consider taking a gap year no matter how effective it might be. A gap year allows one to be independent. It allows people to learn about themselves and what they want to do in their life. Gap year allows one to add to their resume. You can see the world and get new life experiences, which is an untradeable prize. On the other hand, going straight to college can have its advantages. Going right into college can give one a head start

Though there are many advantages to taking a gap year, there are just as many disadvantages. People may find themselves unwilling to go back to school, they may lose opportunities for scholarships, or they might not have enough money to support the activities they replace school with. Even their social life could be affected. With all of these negative aspects one may ask, why would anyone risk taking a gap year?

A life without bills, kids, a significant other, or any worries sounds too good to be true. It may be hard to realize with the stress of college and future plans, but seniors graduating high school have the advantage to live this life if they want. High school seniors have many decsions to make before they graduate. They have to decide if they are going to college, what college they are going to, what career they may want to pursue, how to pay for everything ahead of them, and many more. Sometimes this will get too overwhelming for them and cause them to not want to go to college right away. They plan on going to college after a year on their own trying “experience life” before starting college. People call this taking a “gap year”. Taking a gap year is a personal decision that takes commitment. People take gap years for many reasons, but they will regret their decision because gap years usually turn out bad or not the way the students want them to.

As Greg Kristof, a gap year taker and now sophomore at Harvard University, stated in the interview that I conducted, “In America it seems that college is a huge rite of passage when actually it’s a huge investment”.

Most students are not over the pressures of being a senior in high school. That’s why the gap year should be taken to release all the stresses of high school. Most students cannot take being stressed out so decide to wait. These students are not capable of attending college due to their mental stability. Being a college student directly from high school could take a great toll on a person physical and mental state.