該不該選擇間隔年 任何冒險都可能有意義

If your teenager is talking about taking a year away from the classroom between high school and college, you may have Malia Obama to thank for that.

如果你家十幾歲的孩子說打算在高中和大學的間隙離開課堂一年，那很可能是拜馬莉婭•奧巴馬(Malia Obama)所賜。

But if they’re not yet talking about whether to follow her lead, they should be.

但是，他們理應開始考慮要不要跟隨她的腳步，如果還沒這麼想的話。

Taking time off between high school and college or sometime during the undergraduate years, as Ms Obama is doing before she attends Harvard, has plenty of appeal for high school graduates who don’t know what they want out of college or seek to work, travel or volunteer on the sort of schedule that an academic calendar does not allow.

奧巴馬在去哈佛之前休學了。有些高中畢業生不知道是爲了什麼去上大學，或是希望按照學位課程安排所不允許的方案去找工作、旅行，做義工。像奧巴馬那樣，在高中升大學或是在本科階段休學一段時間，這種做法對於他們來說非常有吸引力。

Parents, however, often worry themselves sick over such talk.

但是，這樣的談話往往會令父母擔心得要死。

While no one wants to drop a six-figure sum on a teenager who doesn’t want to be in school, there are often nagging doubts over whether students who stop for a bit will ultimately get back on track.

如果十幾歲的子女不想上學，沒人會希望在他們身上投入六位數的求學費用，然而很多人懷疑，如果學生暫停學業一段時間，最終到底還會不會回到求學的軌道上來。

Twenty-five years ago, my friend Colin Hall and I tried to dispel those concerns by finding and interviewing as many students who took gap years as we could.

在25年前，我和朋友科林•霍爾(Colin Hall)想盡可能地找尋並採訪一些有過間隔年(gap year)經歷的學生，從而打消這些顧慮。

We profiled 33 of them in a book called Taking Time Off, which was published 20 years ago.

我們選了其中33人做了深度報道，收入一本名叫《休息一下》(Taking Time Off)的書，在20年前出版。

This summer, after news of Ms Obama’s choice, I tracked down everyone from the book to see what had become of them.

今年夏天，在奧巴馬大女兒的選擇傳出後，我追蹤調查了那本書裏的每個人，看看他們現在的狀況。

Was their gap year ultimately incidental to their lives, or did it help them grow into the person they were meant to become? And for those who now had children, how would they react if their offspring wanted to take a gap year?

他們的間隔年最終對人生沒產生太大影響，還是的確幫助他們成長爲自己想要成爲的人？對那些現在有了孩子的人，如果他們的孩子想休學一年再上大學，他們會是什麼反應？

Families seeking data on gap years won’t find much.

你找不到很多關於間隔年的數據。

Part of the problem is that federal data on college delay and completion don’t measure all the reasons people started college late.

一個問題是關於延遲上大學和畢業的聯邦數據並不涵蓋人們延遲上大學的所有原因。

While some people make a deliberate choice to delay college to serve in the military or work or travel, others meander for a few years before deciding to try college after all.

雖然有些人是有意延遲上大學，去參軍、工作或旅行，也有些人只是晃盪了幾年，才最終決定去上大學試試。

A number of researchers have shown a connection between a deliberate choice to take some time off and getting better grades upon return to the classroom.

很多研究者發現，故意選擇休學一段時間與回到學校後取得更好成績之間存在聯繫。

Devin G. Pope, a professor of behavioral science at the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, saw the link among people who had served at a Mormon mission.

芝加哥大學布斯商學院(University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business)的行爲學教授德溫•G•波普(Devin G. Pope)在參與了摩門教傳道活動的人中也發現了這種聯繫。

Bob Clagett, the former dean of admissions at Middlebury College, saw similar results when he helped inspire number-crunching among students there and at the University of North Carolina.

米德爾伯裏學院(Middlebury College)的前招生部主任鮑勃•克拉格特(Bob Clagett)在幫助分析該校和北卡羅來納大學(University of North Carolina)的學生數據時也發現了類似的結果。

Once college is over, however, we enter the realm of anecdotal evidence when it comes to first jobs.

不過，一旦大學結束，剛開始工作，就進入經驗證據的領域。

Parents worry that if their children take a gap year, they will appear wayward to employers, which may have more to do with the term than how that year was spent.

父母們擔心，如果孩子經歷間隔年，僱主們會覺得他們太任性——這可能更多地是因爲這個說法，而非這一年是如何度過的。

It suggests a hole, said Abigail Falik, founder of Global Citizen Year, which has 115 people working in four countries.

它意味着有個空洞，全球公民年(Global Citizen Year)的創始人阿比蓋爾•法利克(Abigail Falik)說。目前該項目有115人在4個國家工作。

She prefers the term bridge year, with its implication of a deliberate connection between one stage of life and the next.

她更喜歡過渡年(bridge year)這個說法，它表明，這是故意把人生的一個階段和下一個階段聯繫起來。

In fact, logic would suggest that many people who take a gap year get better jobs after college than people who don’t.

事實上，很多經歷過間隔年的人在大學畢業後找到的工作，按道理應該比沒經歷過的人更好。

If you were hiring entry-level employees, wouldn’t you rather employ the risk-taking 23-year-olds who found their way in the world for a while than the 22-year-olds who have not done much besides going to school?

如果你在招聘初級職員，你會選擇一個23歲的敢於冒險花一段時間在世界上尋找自己道路的人，還是一個22歲的除了上學沒做過太多事情的人？