My "gap" year
Thursday, April 7, 2016 at 04:41AM 
Image source gapyearplanner.com
Growing evidence also shows that a structured “bridge year” can be a game-changer for low-income students by helping them develop the growth mindset and grit associated with college persistence and completion. "Don't Send Your Kids to College. At Least Not Yet." Abigal Falik, NY Times, April 5, 2016.
Falik argues that all students should have a "gap" year between finishing high school and starting college. Citing high college dropout rates, ever increasing amounts of incurred college debt, and few employer-valued skills on graduation, she suggests:
What if college freshmen arrived on campus not burnt out from having been “excellent sheep” in high school, but instead refreshed, focused and prepared to take full advantage of the rich resources and opportunities colleges have to offer?
And this could happen if students took a "structured" year away from school. It's a great idea.
I took a "gap" year. It wasn't structured. It wasn't spent backpacking across Europe. And it was between my freshman and sophomore years of college rather than between high school and college. But it taught me a lot.
In 1971, the summer after my college freshman year, I had lined up a job driving a silage truck in Vermillion, South Dakota, the home of the University of South Dakota where I was attending school. I was married, poor, and putting myself through school. Not working was not an option. The second day on the job I wrecked the truck and the small building I crashed into and was instantly unemployed. The only other job I could find was working as a hod carrier for my wife's kind-hearted uncle in Ft. Collins, Colorado. I liked Colorado and instead of returning to school that fall, I decided to keep working that calendar year so I could get in-state tuition at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley.
That was my "gap" year - working construction, delivering furniture, and eventually driving a laundry truck for a nursing home chain. All tough, manual jobs, that paid minimum wage (except for the construction). I dropped 20 pounds the first two weeks working construction. I ate two suppers each night. I learned to like beer and to swear like, well, a construction worker. I learned to budget money. I learned to do self-repairs on my cars. I learned how to file my income taxes and pay doctor bills. I learned how to have a good time without spending much money in the process.
But the biggest lesson I learned that was that I did not want to be a laborer all my life. I looked at the "old" guys on the construction crew who were probably in their early 30s and swore that at their advanced age I would not be shoveling sand, setting scaffolding, or thawing frozen water tanks. I realized that an education did not just open doors, allowed one to escape a kind of prison created by a lack of education.
When I went back to school in the fall of 1973, I was a new father, a full-time student, a full-time delivery driver, and an assistant apartment manager. And I went from being a C student to being an A student with a career path.
The gap year worked its magic on me.
