There is an increasing trend that young people graduating from high school will take a gap year to have their internships or trips before entering university. And now there is a heated debate about its pros and cons, and my perspectives are as follows.
Going on a trip or for work enables those ready to attend universities to acquire some knowledge which they cannot learn from any educational institution. While universities are places where students obtain and consolidate theoretical knowledge which is significant to their academic career, the other choices allow them to broaden more important horizons that will benefit their university lives or even their entire lives. Through a tour or a period of job experience, they are like to gain some new experiences that different cultures or notions bring to them. They might have better foresight or perspectives among their peers, making them more competitive during their university years or the time after that.
While it is true that taking a gap year can harvest fruitful experiences which might be conducive to their future, there are still some downsides if they do not receive education successively. For starters, they may find it challenging to fit in the seemingly familiar but strange atmosphere, since the outside world extremely differ from high schools or universities and it takes periods for the gap-year students to readapt to their former lives. In addition, their memories of the knowledge or formulas imparted in senior high schools tend to be vaguer compared with one year ago, causing them to lag behind others at the beginning, thus affecting them to perform better academically.
To conclude, asking for a year off to try out something new like travel or placements is beneficial to adolescents. But they should also consider the drawbacks.