The Value of a Gap Year
For years, I’ve been saying at home education conferences that more American high school graduates should take a gap year. ~Susan Wise Bauer
Liam took a gap year. Noah took a gap year. Some people think that the gap year needs to be “something productive.” Noah’s wasn’t anything extraordinary. It was his time to do what he wanted when he wanted to do it. Liam’s was a year of earning money to travel in Europe for a month. Both benefited from not going directly to college following high school.
Johannah is in the middle of several gap years, if you want to look at it that way. When many of her peers went directly into grad school after college, she chose to teach in France for a year, then work in social work for three years in New York and now is living in South America. She’s deferring her admittance to graduate school to continue her travels for one more year.
In your desire to prepare your kids for college, don’t forget that taking time off between high school and college is valuable!
Both Susan and I have shared that students we meet in our college classes who are a little older tend to bring more to the classroom and fare better than their younger peers. Something to enthusiastically consider!
Food for thought:
How Common is a Gap Year? by Adrienne Green
“…an increasingly popular tradition in the United States: the gap year….the year-long deferral where many students choose to travel, pursue special projects, or gain work experience.”
Helpful Facebook discussion on the Brave Writer page.
