Should Colleges Require A Gap Year?

The author of this article argues that colleges should require that students take a gap year before college (or at any time during their studies, just before they graduate), spent performing national service. This would consist of cleaning parks and rivers, serving at homeless shelters, assisting grade school teachers, and other various acts of community service. Zimmerman argues that this gap year would not only benefit students by creating better citizens, but it would improve the quality of our country as well. Throughout the article, Zimmerman uses pathos and logos to connect with the audience and increase the strength of his argument. 

The general thesis can be located in the very first line of the article: colleges should require a gap year because “it would go a long way toward improving higher education’s public perception” (Zimmerman 1). This can be considered the thesis because it introduces the topic and stance that the article will be discussing. 

One smaller claim found in this article is that during this gap year, students would meet many different kinds of people who would “burst their college bubbles”, which would “revive the original purpose of our educational institutions: to produce civically informed and dedicated Americans” (Zimmerman 2). I think this is a very valid claim that contributes to the larger thesis because it is important for individuals to meet different kinds of people, and colleges often don’t have that variety. Students should know of other paths that people take besides going to college, and understand the different lives that people live; I think this is important to become an empathetic and well informed person. Another small claim in this article is that requiring gap years would “erase the elitist shine… which are too often reserved for the privileged” (Zimmerman 2). This is implying that not everyone has the opportunity to take a gap year, so the requirement would get rid of the stereotype that only the privileged can take a year off. This contributes to the thesis because it makes the idea seem more worthwhile and beneficial. 

Zimmerman uses the rhetorical appeal logos by including logic and statistics in his argument, for example: “61 percent of Americans think higher education is headed in the wrong direction. Republicans are more concerned about what they call the liberal bias of our institutions, while Democrats worry more about rising tuition costs” (Zimmerman 1). This percentage indicates that more than half of Americans don’t like where higher education is going. Zimmerman also uses pathos by discussing how implementing a mandatory gap year would affect individuals and the country as a whole: it would create “better citizens, and a better country”, as well as “make our nation a more decent and humane place, for everyone” (Zimmerman 1). 

I think this is a logical proposal and a good idea. I’m sure that it would be more complicated than Zimmerman makes it sound, but I believe that it would be beneficial to spend time taking care of the world. However, I’m sure that some people need to get through college quickly and don’t have the time to take a whole year off; some people may need to spend their time working and making money, so they might not have time for service. Overall, I think that a required gap year is a good idea, but may not be entirely logical. 

Works Cited

  • Zimmerman, Jonathan. “Why Colleges Should Require a Gap Year,” The Chronicle of Higher Education, vol. 66 no. 16, 10 January 2020. (PDF)