Ever Heard of “Gap Year”? Probably Not in America

 I can’t wait until Megan and I really start to venture out into the world and are able to learn about multiple cultures and their traditions. We’re both learning so much from talking to travelers online through their blog posts and Travello app posts.

Of course we’ll never be able to understand everything until we get out and experience the world of travel ourselves, but it amazes me every time that I speak to someone from another country and they compare Americans way of life to theirs, especially recently when a friend was telling me about the Europeans educational traditions.

In American households most of us are expected to follow a certain path in life. It starts off in school; elementary, middle, and then high school. Grades are not necessarily important until you reach high school, then grades and extracurricular activities are supposed to be the focus of your life. You have to excel in both of these categories if you ever dream of getting accepted into a prestigious college, or hope to be awarded a scholarship to pay for college. During the high school years you are reaching puberty and trying to discover yourself, and when you look down the road, all you can see is school; homework, exams, research papers, and hours of studying for the next 4-8 years.

What if you knew that you were going to be rewarded time off from all those monogamous school studies for an entire year if you could do well in high school? If you kept your grades up and participated in the activities of your choosing, you could have an entire year off after high school, before attending college, to go out and find yourself. You could travel the world or backpack across the United States, or try working and saving up as much money as you could in a year.

Bottom line, you could graduate high school and take a year off and there wouldn’t be any repercussions and no one would negatively judge you for your decision. Your chosen college would even be okay with your decision to attend after a year break, and they would hold your scholarship during that year. Your parents would promote it and tell you about their “vacation year” between high school and college and how much fun they had experiencing life and learning so much about themselves as they matured into adults.

Doesn’t that sound intriguing?

How did I come up with such a great idea you may ask? Well, unfortunately I did not come up with this astounding plan. In many parts of the world this plan is called a “gap year”. Students are able to take a year off between high school and college and are even encouraged to do so.  I think many Americans have such a different way of viewing things. Taking a year off before or after college, doesn’t mean that you are postponing your life, but you’re taking the time to have new experiences and giving yourself a break, a reward for all the hard work that you have hopefully put into the past few years in order to get you where you needed to be.

Implementing this “gap year” into Americas’ educational system would have very positive effects and there would be fewer students going into their first year with “undecided” majors. That “gap year” would give them plenty of time to decide what they want to study, or if they even want to attend college. They’re able to see how the world works from outside the educational walls that have sheltered them for so many years and they can make a first hand, educated and experienced decision on what direction they want their future to advance.

Where you’re from, what’s the standard there?

Megan and I would love to learn about it. We want to educate ourselves as much as we can about a country and its traditions, especially before we visit.

There are so many unique practices around the world that we could write pages and pages on every country, so instead we’re going to start touching more on small subjects that really grab our attention at the time such as Megan’s last post. So we hope you all enjoy a little culture in your life every now and then. Have a great day!