Education Week, September 22, 2010

This week the article "Scholars Suggest Adding 'Gap Year' May Encourage College Completion" caught my attention.  I am currently teaching two beginning, college German classes and I have many Freshmen in my sections.  One of the students told me that he had taken a year off and worked with a non-profit organization in Central America.  He not only improved his Spanish, he also seems to be extremely motivated and ready to get the most out of his college years.  I also found this article interesting because I, myself, took a PELP or Planned Educational Leave before starting U.C. Davis.  During this year I was an A.F.S. exchange student in Austria.  I lived with an Austrian family and attended another year of high school there.  This gap year was an unforgettable experience that changed the trajectory of my life.  My college experience was better and more enriching because I took this year off.
     According to research cited in the article, former "gappers" did demonstrate higher motivation in college than students who did not take a gap year.  This took the form of "adaptive behavior" which included planning, task management, and persistence.  It was suggested that a gap year might be key in dealing with motivational difficulties in college students.  The most recent statistics from the U.S. Department of Education's National Center on Education Statistics indicate that only 7.6 % of 2003-2004 graduates delayed college entry for a year.  29% of these students traveled or pursued other interests.  84% worked.  Karl Haigler and Rae Nelson, in their book called "The Gap Year Advantage" interviewed 280 students who had taken a gap year.  They cited burnout and a desire to discover more about themselves as their top two reasons for taking a gap year.  It seems to me that we as a society and perhaps schools have come to view whether high school students go on to college as a yard stick that measures our success.  There are young people who are able but perhaps not quite ready to go to college.  My own personal experience backs this up.