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Focus only on your own growth.
GapYear is a time for growth and happiness.
Back to ListBack to ListTo parents who are hesitant to agree to their child's gap year
If a child who is doing well at university suddenly says, “I'm going to take a leave and do what I want” or “I want to take a gap year,” how many parents will respond positively with “Okay, do as you wish”? Probably very few would readily agree.
It's natural for parents to worry before trusting that their child will make good use of a gap year — concerns like whether it will disrupt their studies, whether they'll suffer disadvantages when seeking employment, or whether they'll just play around while on leave. After all, even grown university students still look like children to their parents. In this article, I will discuss a few of the concerns parents have about their child's gap year.
Q1. If they temporarily suspend their studies and take a gap year, won't it interfere with their academics?
Research showing that students who return from a gap year actually have higher academic achievement should help alleviate these worries. In practice, after universities in Australia, New Zealand, the United States, and the United Kingdom adopted gap year programs, the dropout rate among high-achieving students decreased and academic performance improved.
A gap year allows students to experience things they can't get from academics alone, and these experiences can make them more focused on their career path and studies. Lee Jun-yeop, who wrote the book 'Running on Blue Days' about his gap year story, said that during his gap year he suspended his studies and worked on a farm through a volunteer program in Israel. He said that this labor helped him better understand the world.
I only studied and read books, but there are many people in the world who do physical work.
Doing hands-on work helped me gain an understanding of the world.
▶[Interview] One-year gap year — Lee Jun-yeop, author of the book 'Running on Blue Days'
From an academic perspective, hard labor may seem meaningless. However, the world cannot be understood through academics alone. By using a gap year to understand and experience a broader world, this will instead make them more dedicated to their career and studies.
Q2.Would taking a gap year put them at a disadvantage when seeking employment?
A gap year is first and foremost a wonderful experience for oneself, but at the same time it can become a more special credential or story than anyone else’s when applying for jobs. Of course, treating a gap year only as a credential is not right. In other words, the purpose of a gap year is not to create a special credential. A gap year is the most valuable experience for learning about life. The experience of a gap year also shines in job applications.
The first step in job hunting is writing a personal statement. A personal statement is where you write about the life you have lived. The difference between someone who has lived a life different from others and someone who has not appears in the personal statement. A person who has taken a gap year can more effectively highlight their uniqueness in the personal statement as someone who has lived a different life. From the perspective of hiring companies, a student’s gap year experience is recognized as a special credential or story. Therefore, companies pay closer attention to students who have taken a gap year.
Now college-aged children have grown up and are at an age where they need to make decisions for themselves. From a parent’s point of view they may still seem like kids and you may want to protect them from everything, but that can be harmful to a child who is now a university student. Why not try trusting your children?
Trusting your child’s gap year will be a great source of strength for them. Although your child’s gap year plans may fail, the experience of being free to fail is likely a valuable opportunity that should be allowed to today’s university students. After a gap year, children will have grown a great deal and parents will notice this too. Trusting your children’s gap year is a wonderful way to support them.
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GUNGUNEditor