Above: Harry W. Scheuch, “Finishing the Cathedral of Learning”, 1934, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Transfer from the U.S. Department of Labor, 1964.1.42
I was in the middle of my second year of college. The realization I’d been in school for the last fifteen years of my twenty total years of life hit me, and it struck me as excessive. I wasn’t sure I wanted another two years of school. At the time, I was majoring in journalism, but not especially excited about my prospects. This was January 2009, when the journalism industry was attempting to recover from the upheaval of the 2008 recession. Newspapers around the country were shutting down and dying with them was the idea that anyone without a trust fund could afford to get started in the industry. I wasn’t particularly motivated this semester, clearly, and my grades started to slip. Instead of making the dean’s list, I was scraping along. I was burned out, and it showed. Something needed to change.
I decided to take a break from school for a semester in order to gain perspective and refresh my mind after a decade and a half of formal education. Taking the spring semester off helped me to breathe; to recover from the demands of formal schooling and rediscover my own desires and ambitions.
I ended up tutoring high school students for the spring semester. I also made more time for my photography hobby and spent time with friends. My biggest concern about taking a semester off was that I wouldn’t go back, so I made sure to note all the paperwork deadlines for the upcoming fall semester. I knew I wanted to finish college and earn a degree. I also knew I needed a break.
Taking a gap year is a necessary pause in for the modern student. I took a year off between my second and third years of college, but I highly recommend taking time away from school before starting college. It helps you to understand the world into which you are growing. You have a better idea of how your field of study fits into the world. You have an opportunity to learn outside of a structured lecture hall or textbook. The year between high school and college is the perfect time to take a break from formal learning and continue to learn in a hands-on way. Build something; develop your skills; volunteer with a beloved outreach program. The possibilities are wide-ranging; the point is simply to learn informally before returning to formal study another four years or more years.
American education requires rest
The American system of schooling trains students for burnout. Students spend most of their time on busywork, then hope to answer the questions on one test well enough to proceed to the next level of busywork and testing. All this for nine months a year, eight hours a day, five days each week of school – is it necessary? Are those 200 odd days each year for a dozen years resulting in an educated class of adults, ready to make their entrance into the “real world” and affect meaningful change? The answer seems to be disappointing. Unfortunately, it appears we’ve trained students to show up to class every day to listen to someone talk, but not much else. We value compulsive education, conformity, and daily attendance in school, yet the world values creative thinking, novel approaches, and the ability to complete projects professionally. Instead of training students to progress in lockstep according to an outdated factory model, instruction should reward creative thinking and solutions. Our schools are mismatched from the world they are meant to prepare students for. University instructors and courses are then expected to make up for knowledge students should have gained in grade school or middle school. The system is redundant and inefficient. I was greatly disturbed to learn that some of my college classmates tested at a second grade reading level. They certainly could have blown off the test, sure. I suspect, however, that wasn’t the case for all of these students. They showed up to every class, but hadn’t benefited much, despite their attendance. If one can get into a respectable university only reading at a second grade level, why are we bothering with another ten years of school?
The American system of education is broken. Our students spend significantly more time in class than other nations, yet trail those same nations on formal testing. Perhaps the answer isn’t to be found in requiring still more formal instruction, but in removing non-essentials, prioritizing focus, and allowing students time to prepare and recover, in turn, for the next round of school. Perhaps we can develop a system of more focus during school years, and more rest during “recovery” times. We should encourage more rest from formal education, and more unstructured learning.
The best way to address the education system’s culture of burnout in the short term is to recommend students take a gap year.
A gap year should be a common occurrence here in the United States. It already is in Europe. Students spend twelve years preparing to get into a great college and field of study. They should be able to rest before exerting themselves another four years on the most intensive academics of their education. Instead of looking at higher education as a continuation of high school, we should look at high school as an interval and higher education as another interval. In between them, we should schedule rest. Just as running intervals with scheduled rest time between each sprint helps an athlete cover more ground than running the entire time, taking a gap year will allow students to recover and prepare for their most important learning years yet. They will be rested and ready to focus when classes start. Why would we not encourage students to take one year to seriously prepare for the four plus years of study ahead of them?
As we’ve discussed, recovery isn’t sitting back and doing nothing. It is active discovery and exploration, free from obligation. For one person coding a new website is fun, for others building a robot is fun; for someone else, maybe it’s learning a new language. Recovery depends on what is interesting and rewarding for the individual.
Students should take off a year between graduation and starting university studies to explore interests and prepare for rigorous studies. Students, like anyone who deals with knowledge as full-time, should train and perform like athletes. We should learn for months at a time, then rest for months at a time. Thankfully, universities are beginning to take notice of just how helpful gap years can be. Harvard and Princeton both recommend a gap year before starting classes, and the students who take gap years echo the recommendation. A year to recharge and prepare for rigorous testing is a great idea. You just need to prepare for it.
Harvard’s admissions page reads, “We encourage admitted students to defer enrollment for one year to travel, pursue a special project or activity, work, or spend time in another meaningful way—provided they do not enroll in a degree-granting program at another college. Deferrals for two-year military service are also granted.” Taking time away from schooling can help you develop interests, gain experience in a professional capacity or simply in the real world, you can learn more by building for a year. It’s a compliment to education, not a detriment at the expense of it.
Pause instead of stopping
In discussions around college, there seems to emerge a bit of a false dichotomy; the tendency is to frame the conversation as either a student completes four years of study immediately after high school, or the student never completes a degree. This either/ or isn’t supported by the numbers; reality is more complex than that framing allows. According to NPR, as many as 74% of college students are non-traditional, meaning they did not start college right after high school, are employed full-time while attending class, have children to care for, or have other non-traditional responsibilities. Today, 34% of the US population holds a bachelor degree or higher. This means many degree holders completed their degrees along a time-frame different from the traditional four-year model. Additionally, many students drop out only to return to college years later when they need to become more competitive within their industries or want to start second careers. As of 2019, 36 million Americans were previously enrolled in college, but did not complete their degrees.
We can improve the odds of students completing degrees uninterrupted by allowing them time to thoughtfully choose their area of study before embarking on it. Instead of funneling everyone to get a degree as quickly as possible, we should encourage them to experience the world for a year, then make an informed decision as to where to direct their studies. These students would then gain experience building skills and relationships within their desired degree field, which they could continue or return to after earning their degree. Taking time away from formal study will inform their decisions upon returning to classwork.
This was the case for me. After taking the spring semester off, I returned to university excited to finish my studies. I was refreshed, had a renewed perspective, and was ready to return to serious studies. In those months of tutoring, I watched first-hand how other people learn and this inspired the decision to change my major to psychology, where I earned my BA. I understood more concretely how psychology and learning directly impact people of all ages. That third year of school, I ended up turning in my best gpa, that is until my final year, which was even better. Taking a little time off helped me to finish that degree strong.
Look at a gap year as a pause on structured learning. It isn’t a retreat from education, or even truly a step away from it. You are learning during that year, you just aren’t sitting in a lecture hall being graded for it. I learned so much about running my own business, scheduling work time, and about the kind of work I wanted to do just in those few months.
The fear most parents and counselors have on the topic of gap years, is that the year will turn into the student never actually pursuing or finishing a degree. This is misplaced. The students who are going to finish a degree are the ones who need the time off in the first place. Again, this is a structured rest in a series of learning intervals. Students who take a year off return to campus refreshed and motivated to complete their studies.
“The best gap years tend to be the ones that push students to think about who they are and their role in the world,” says Joe O’Shea, in an interview with US News. O’Shea is the assistant provost and dean of undergraduate studies at Florida State University and author of Gap Year: How Delaying College Changes People in Ways the World Needs.
“Often you see students who struggle in higher education because they don’t have a sense of purpose and direction . Gap years – because they give students a broader sense of the world and their place in it and how they can contribute – help to supply and empower students with the kind of motivation and purpose that can animate their entire college experience.”
What about these students who aren’t motivated; who will likely struggle to finish university? The same principle applies; take the year to explore different potential career paths. Intern or work in a field you’re considering studying. Study successful people you admire and build those skills into your routine. Take the time to consider the investment of time, money, and work you’re about to make and be sure it’s what you want to do. College is a great choice for many people, but you should take the investment seriously and prepare for the demanding pace of the work involved.
A gap year can actually help point students in a direction they’d like to pursue. They can discover career fields they may not have known existed before taking the time to explore and experience the world. The gap year is like a preview of the world students can help improve; it shows the vibrant and complex world we live in, and shows how many fascinating options really exist.
Fall of 2020
This year is especially odd for the graduating class of 2020. University classes may not be available on campus due to the pandemic. Unless you’re pursuing a career in law or health-care, taking a year to build something you can be proud of is the smarter choice in the long term. College educations are meant to prepare and equip you to work in your field of study. This won’t happen via Zoom. Paying tuition for video chats seems like a wasted opportunity.
We learn not from receiving information, but by making use of it. This is the perfect time to pause formal study in favor of unstructured learning. Build your own course or business to learn from this year. Volunteer with civic or social organizations. Start a business; create your own curriculum to study and gain expertise on; develop a hobby, build an app. Dive into the world’s problems and opportunities, and learn everything you can without the constraints of tests or minimum requirements. Build a solution to the problems you encounter daily. Perhaps you need an algorithm to sort through your expenses? Maybe you want to write about problems you see in the world, or draw attention to ideas you think should be talked about more. Perhaps you can build an app to keep track of daily habits or tasks to do. Do you see a need in your community? Build a service to answer that need. Or, maybe you take the year to work part-time and dive deeply into studying a subject you love, but aren’t sure you want to study in college. Learn, create, and build. Surprise yourself.
Take Action
School teaches us to learn passively, but the world rewards those who learn actively. An instructor stands at the front of the room and tells you what to read, how to solve the problems, and how to write it down. However, working environments frequently require us to be proactive and find ways to succeed without waiting for instruction. Classrooms are designed for students to sit and listen to lectures, or watch slide presentations. Only rarely are students encouraged to build or be active. Sadly, many educators’ idea of being an “active” participant is simply showing up to class and asking questions. This continues at the college level.
Your education requires your active investment. Build something this year. Write and publish online; write software to solve a problem you’ve had; create a company providing a service to others. Take the year to build something.
A gap year is an exercise in taking action, in actively educating yourself. This isn’t just a helpful idea for a student, but quickly becoming a quality which competitive job candidates must possess. Increasingly, companies are implementing tests as pre-hiring requirements, and specifically looking for prospective workers who can demonstrate skills. They describe these tests, which take place before job interviews, as a “Try before you buy,” opportunity for the employers. Taking a gap year to build skills, or explore a new area could become a necessary choice to increase your hiring potential. Imagine approaching companies not only with a degree, but with a piece of software or small business you built yourself! Imagine showing up to interviews knowing you’ve already demonstrated your abilities and willingness to work, along with your degree.
Take action and build for a year, then enter university with an appreciation of the opportunities higher education can bring, like challenges to your assumptions, new ideas, and a new world of contacts, peers, and mentors. You’ll go into college with the advantage of experiencing the world for a bit as an adult, rather than with the kid-gloves of being a child. You’ll also have the valuable experience of creating and building something yourself. Most importantly, you’ll have a clearer direction of where you want to go in life. College is the place students try out different potential career fields, often switching majors and trying different jobs. You’ll have a year of experience in a career field before you get to campus, giving you clarity and a sense of purpose right from the beginning of your university career.
At the very least, a gap year will teach you how to learn – how to educate yourself. While schools train us to be passive students, the world rewards those who take action. This is the critical lesson of the gap year: If you can build a bias toward action, rather than waiting to receive information or permission, you will succeed in life.
Many universities have deferment options precisely for a gap year. Check with your institution to make sure you can hold your spot for the following year or semester. The most important part of taking a gap year is to have a plan. Secure your space at the university, decide what you want to gain from your gap year, and make it happen.
Potential options for a gap year:
- Volunteer
- Build something (an app, website, service, etc.)
- Gain work experience
- Research or study an area of interest
- Have structured or unstructured learning time
A gap year doesn’t represent an end or gap in education, but putting knowledge to practical use before continuing formal education. It is a pause in the many years of learning and provides an opportunity for students to recover from and prepare for more technical and rigorous learning. It is a rewarding experience, and should be increasingly recommended here in the United States. We should prepare students for life by teaching them to work hard, then rest; not that they should attempt to work at an intense pace indefinitely. Instead of setting up students to burn out, let’s teach them to work hard and rest, over and over, for life.
