Those who believe in the measure say that students benefit a lot from travelling or working for a year before their formal university education. First, they can more broadly acquainted themselves with the society, deepen their understanding of the outside world, and thus better coordinate their objectives of learning with the needs of the society. In contrast, by immediate entrance to university they can not steer the direction of their study well and may display a poor combination of the theory with practice. Second, study at high school is really exausting, especially when to win college admission. So it is necessary to grant these children a relatively long period of relaxation or buffer, say, travelling or working for a year, to loosen the chords of their brain, so that when they go back to school later again, they can become completely refreshed and rejuvenated.
However, many others hold the opposite opinion that these young children should stick to their usual life course. The first reason they cite is that there is always a proper time in one’s life for doing a proper thing and that the one year is just a golden period for advanced learning, which simply can not afford any squandering. They also cast doubt on the view that the kids can gain social and working experience by questioning what kind of jobs the fledglings can find and what if our universities can offer the same opportunities. They further express their concern that the young, innocent and immature, may go astray and be misled when exposed to a world so trickily alluring. They are worried if the “sophisticated” men could sit still in their classrooms when they come back to the campus.
To be frank, I believe we do not need to be so imaginative. The notion of travelling or working for one year before college sounds flashy, but will bring about more troubles than we can control. In my opinion, we may as well perfect our college education systems, for example, by creating more chances for social practice, to achieve the same benefits that the bold measure can contribute.