It's Not A Gap Year! It's An Education.
Professional Development
May 22, 2014
Deborah Mills-Scofield
Topics
Coaching, Growth, Self DevelopmentEducation is learning languages: the languages of words, music, math, art, chemistry, biology, etc. Education is learning paradoxes … and oxymorons. So let me highlight an oxymoron that is damaging our kids’ education: Lifelong Learning and Gap Year. If we truly believe in Lifelong Learning, then we have to believe that Gap Years are not Gaps…and we have to use a different word. What if we didn’t call it a “Gap Year” but called it an “Applied Discovery Year”? What if this was a year students saw worlds they only read about or hadn’t even imagined. Read More...
I agree with you Deborah from the bottom of my heart! I did a Gap Year or should I call it Gap Years between my graduation and commencing my Chartered Accountant Program at a time when the concept of Gap Year did not exist. I was 3 years younger than all my college friends when we graduated and I wanted time out before I studied further. Fortunately my parents supported my idea of working which I did and then went on to complete my formal education. I even managed to do a bit of travelling on my own. More importantly, I had experience of the working world and knew how to work under pressure. No surprise when I qualified at first attempt – I had 3 Work Life Experience Years that helped. It is a true life learning experience.