People sing the praises of the gap year, which is the year or two that some young people take off after graduating from high school, before they going on to further schooling. But in the life of such a young person, a year is a long time, and education plans can change. Parents might be forgiven for wondering if their children’s progress and future career will be affected by this break. Will the kids enjoy their time off so much that they’ll never return to school at all? Their schooling might be derailed altogether which, in most people’s minds, would be a disaster.
It’s a legitimate worry, but in some ways, taking that extra time could actually save an educational future rather than destroy it. If students are feeling burned out from twelve long years of public school, then they may dread the thought of plunging immediately into even heavier studies. It’s possible that having one or two years experience doing something else will allow them to start anew with a fresher mind and more energy.
Goofing off doesn’t need to be the focus of the gap year either. It can be planned so that the young person continues with their education, but in a different location. It’s well known that a change of scene can often imbue an experience with fresh interest. Young people can align with specific agencies to find work relating to their area of study. Or students taking a year off in the middle of their program can use the skills they’ve already attained, and actually see how things work in practice rather than in theory.
Yet one can’t dismiss the worry that settling back into school life after an interesting and exciting year off may be difficult for the young person. A student might decide that working as a chambermaid in a hotel in Vienna is simply more interesting than going home to study economics. Parents certainly need to broach this issue, and discuss with their kids how their educational pursuits and future might be affected.
Ultimately, of course, decisions about their future come down to the individual students. Education is not always acquired just in the classroom, but can also be gained in the wider world, through life experiences, learning on the job, internships and volunteer work. If the young person decides to pursue other options that he or she discovers through gap year work, then that may indeed be a viable choice in developing goals for a future career.