Argumentative Essay
Devarus Jordan
Prof. Jacobs
Friday 10:00-12:45
Freshman Comp-ENC 1101
Taking a Break after High School
A developmental period after high school graduation is a relatively new phenomenon in the United States. In many European countries it is very common for students to take time between high school graduation and college enrollment to focus on things other than academics. This period is typically called a “gap year”, defined by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, as “a one-year hiatus from academic studies to allow for non-academic activities.” The negative aspect most say is that doing this students will be thrown off the focus that furthering their education is a contribution that increases their earning power. Students deciding to take a gap year will be applying to his/her personal development, establishing a path in one’s college or career direction also becoming a more competitive applicant as one enters the working world after college. High school graduates should take a year off before entering college. In reality, this gives students the ability to enhance and recharge. Students learn to be independent before going to college. Also, one gets the opportunity to figure himself/herself know what they want to do in life.
Straightaway, spending 12 years in school is exhausting and with those last 4 years presenting high expectations with the exhaustion of college preps, college searches, obtaining a scholarship, and completing college applications. Grinding for a high school diploma and/or scholarship isn’t light work. It requires just as much dedication and hard work as striving for a degree, just on a smaller scale. Taking a break from the academic grind allows students to still be focused but more relaxed, it gives the brain time to take in and generate all the things one has learned throughout school. By not exhausting oneself, creates the opportunity to exercise the things one learned in the first 12 years of school before it escapes ones memory and frees the mind to have room for growth, for new knowledge and bringing forth the hunger for more learning. Once the return to school, students will be thrilled and yearning to learn new material that awaits for them to survive in modern society. Marianne Green said it best when she said “Gap year is a state of mind; it’s a way of choosing an activity and using that experience in way that is helpful for the future”.
Furthermore, relief of academic studies frees the pathway for evolving and becoming more self-reliant. A student who is able to enter the workforce before going to college avoids the shocker once out of college. The benefit of setting up a life outside of academic work puts one a step ahead on a lot of college students who don’t know the other side of the academic life and has never had a job. Being able to know how to manage on one’s own and knowing the routine of paying bills is an advantage over those students who don’t. During the gap year students are able to gain work experience which is a part of progression to maturity by learning how to conduct oneself in public, communicate with people,and get the idea of how work is. Being sophisticated is something every college loves and wants to see in prospective students. Getting a job also allows one to save some extra cash for tuition or books and not have to depend solely one’s parents, strengthens ones résumé making it look better because one can provide a bit of work experience of some sort and not be freshly new to the work environment.
In contrast to the benefits of taking a gap year there is a downside to it some say that this break leads to putting college off and students could be thrown off focus and forget that the more education one has the more one earns. Being that this is true for some students who can’t develop important habits, taking this break is a very easy way to lose focus of the academic routine. The path of postponing school can be challenging to get back on. For some this procedure is not option for several reasons, taking year off would mean starting college with people younger than oneself or falling behind one's peers. It also, means possibly disappointing parents who has high expectations of the student to go straight off into college and having to live at home. The break limits the ability to get to guidance from school counselors, support from friends that are in college or planning to, and can take away scholarship resources that one had out of high school. For the students who acquire work may feel the urge to want to spend their money more on clothes, shoes, and other personal items than on tuition and books. Another negative outlook of the gap year can be expensive for a student and can add to student debt. But with a clear cut plan students can become wiser and sophisticated. Schools have even started “Gap Year” Programs that help students find a sense of direction for college rather than jumping dead into college and going from major to major and spending or wasting money which creates more debt for a student. These programs are customizable to fit the students` financial, social, and professional needs.
To get back to the point, the gap year gives something one can’t replace and that’s time. It gives time for one to figure out himself/herself to do or be in life. Not all students coming out of high school know what they really want to do after high school and some think they want to do something until they find out that the particular career path isn’t something they really don’t want to pursue. A gap year allows one to find himself/herself by exploring the world, the work field, and oneself. It provides the ability to find ones academic focus, one is given the ability to research on one’s own and not just for school research papers. “Students can use this year to refresh skills, gain experience, and learn of career opportunities that may ultimately direct their academic path”, says Rita Toliver-Roberts, Vice President of Academic Advancement at Pierce College. It offers the ability to obtain an internship early in areas of which one is curious about or in which one feels is a desired career. This practice will give real world experience, save money from wasting it on books and tuition of career or degree no longer wanting to strive for, and gives a head start with some contacts in one’s career. Gap year prepares students because one is more willing to strive for a better education after seeing how hard it is to be successful in life without one.
In sum, the gap year, a one year break for high school graduates before they go on into college, continues to be a relevant debate in U.S. society today, strongly supporting that high school graduates should take a year off before entering college. Opposers stress that postponing college throws the student off from wanting to further his/her education. But actually it is very beneficial. This break allows for maturity to occur and development in oneself, and provides the ability to regenerate or recharge the brain and allow for new knowledge to be taken in. Also, it fosters the birth of independence in a young adult early in life. The effect of this year hiatus from academic studies broadens the mind past high school. Students are introduced into the real world and what it actually takes to survive in the world today, outside of the books and academic studies, and the leading way to learn is through kinesthetic learning.
Work Cited
Prof. Jacobs
Friday 10:00-12:45
Freshman Comp-ENC 1101
Taking a Break after High School
A developmental period after high school graduation is a relatively new phenomenon in the United States. In many European countries it is very common for students to take time between high school graduation and college enrollment to focus on things other than academics. This period is typically called a “gap year”, defined by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, as “a one-year hiatus from academic studies to allow for non-academic activities.” The negative aspect most say is that doing this students will be thrown off the focus that furthering their education is a contribution that increases their earning power. Students deciding to take a gap year will be applying to his/her personal development, establishing a path in one’s college or career direction also becoming a more competitive applicant as one enters the working world after college. High school graduates should take a year off before entering college. In reality, this gives students the ability to enhance and recharge. Students learn to be independent before going to college. Also, one gets the opportunity to figure himself/herself know what they want to do in life.
Straightaway, spending 12 years in school is exhausting and with those last 4 years presenting high expectations with the exhaustion of college preps, college searches, obtaining a scholarship, and completing college applications. Grinding for a high school diploma and/or scholarship isn’t light work. It requires just as much dedication and hard work as striving for a degree, just on a smaller scale. Taking a break from the academic grind allows students to still be focused but more relaxed, it gives the brain time to take in and generate all the things one has learned throughout school. By not exhausting oneself, creates the opportunity to exercise the things one learned in the first 12 years of school before it escapes ones memory and frees the mind to have room for growth, for new knowledge and bringing forth the hunger for more learning. Once the return to school, students will be thrilled and yearning to learn new material that awaits for them to survive in modern society. Marianne Green said it best when she said “Gap year is a state of mind; it’s a way of choosing an activity and using that experience in way that is helpful for the future”.
Furthermore, relief of academic studies frees the pathway for evolving and becoming more self-reliant. A student who is able to enter the workforce before going to college avoids the shocker once out of college. The benefit of setting up a life outside of academic work puts one a step ahead on a lot of college students who don’t know the other side of the academic life and has never had a job. Being able to know how to manage on one’s own and knowing the routine of paying bills is an advantage over those students who don’t. During the gap year students are able to gain work experience which is a part of progression to maturity by learning how to conduct oneself in public, communicate with people,and get the idea of how work is. Being sophisticated is something every college loves and wants to see in prospective students. Getting a job also allows one to save some extra cash for tuition or books and not have to depend solely one’s parents, strengthens ones résumé making it look better because one can provide a bit of work experience of some sort and not be freshly new to the work environment.
In contrast to the benefits of taking a gap year there is a downside to it some say that this break leads to putting college off and students could be thrown off focus and forget that the more education one has the more one earns. Being that this is true for some students who can’t develop important habits, taking this break is a very easy way to lose focus of the academic routine. The path of postponing school can be challenging to get back on. For some this procedure is not option for several reasons, taking year off would mean starting college with people younger than oneself or falling behind one's peers. It also, means possibly disappointing parents who has high expectations of the student to go straight off into college and having to live at home. The break limits the ability to get to guidance from school counselors, support from friends that are in college or planning to, and can take away scholarship resources that one had out of high school. For the students who acquire work may feel the urge to want to spend their money more on clothes, shoes, and other personal items than on tuition and books. Another negative outlook of the gap year can be expensive for a student and can add to student debt. But with a clear cut plan students can become wiser and sophisticated. Schools have even started “Gap Year” Programs that help students find a sense of direction for college rather than jumping dead into college and going from major to major and spending or wasting money which creates more debt for a student. These programs are customizable to fit the students` financial, social, and professional needs.
To get back to the point, the gap year gives something one can’t replace and that’s time. It gives time for one to figure out himself/herself to do or be in life. Not all students coming out of high school know what they really want to do after high school and some think they want to do something until they find out that the particular career path isn’t something they really don’t want to pursue. A gap year allows one to find himself/herself by exploring the world, the work field, and oneself. It provides the ability to find ones academic focus, one is given the ability to research on one’s own and not just for school research papers. “Students can use this year to refresh skills, gain experience, and learn of career opportunities that may ultimately direct their academic path”, says Rita Toliver-Roberts, Vice President of Academic Advancement at Pierce College. It offers the ability to obtain an internship early in areas of which one is curious about or in which one feels is a desired career. This practice will give real world experience, save money from wasting it on books and tuition of career or degree no longer wanting to strive for, and gives a head start with some contacts in one’s career. Gap year prepares students because one is more willing to strive for a better education after seeing how hard it is to be successful in life without one.
In sum, the gap year, a one year break for high school graduates before they go on into college, continues to be a relevant debate in U.S. society today, strongly supporting that high school graduates should take a year off before entering college. Opposers stress that postponing college throws the student off from wanting to further his/her education. But actually it is very beneficial. This break allows for maturity to occur and development in oneself, and provides the ability to regenerate or recharge the brain and allow for new knowledge to be taken in. Also, it fosters the birth of independence in a young adult early in life. The effect of this year hiatus from academic studies broadens the mind past high school. Students are introduced into the real world and what it actually takes to survive in the world today, outside of the books and academic studies, and the leading way to learn is through kinesthetic learning.
Work Cited