疫情之下選擇"間隔年"的高中畢業生人數增多

Devon Tyrie had a plan for the 2020-2021 academic year. The Massachusetts native wanted to take a gap year between graduating from high school and starting university, combining volunteer work, international travel and internships. But with the world still in the grip of Covid-19, it's clear her year will not pan out as envisaged.

來自美國馬薩諸塞州的德文·泰瑞原本對2020-2021學年的計劃是在高中畢業後休整一年再開始上大學。她打算在這個間隔年做志願者、出國旅行和實習。但由於世界依然籠罩在疫情的陰影下，顯然她的間隔年不會像設想的一樣順利。

Tyrie, 18, says she's had to make a decision based on worst-case scenarios. She's been accepted by Middlebury College in VerMont, which like many US institutions, has not yet released plans for the upcoming semester. But some higher education institutions in both the US and the UK have already said they will shift to a predominantly online learning environment for part or all of the next academic year. Tyrie says she's had to weigh up the risks; if she goes straight to college her first year may be far from the traditional experience, yet if she takes a gap year, her activities will likely be limited. In the end, she's applied for a deferral to the next academic year. "It's kind of tough right now, not knowing, but I'm doing my best to make a plan," says Tyrie.

18歲的泰瑞表示，她必須基於最壞的情況來做決定。她已經被佛蒙特州的明德學院錄取。和許多美國高校一樣，明德學院還未發佈新學期的計劃。但是美國和英國的一些高等教育機構都已經表示，下一個學年的部分或全部時間會轉換成以線上教學爲主的模式。泰瑞說，她必須權衡風險；如果她直接去上大學，她的第一年也許會和傳統的大學經歷大不相同，然而如果她休整一年，她的活動將很可能受到限制。最終，她申請了延期入學。泰瑞說：“現在挺難辦的，因爲一切都不確定，但我會盡力做好計劃。”

Her reluctance to start her university education virtually is by no means unique. For students, it's not an attractive prospect, especially given most universities continue to charge full tuition fees. Madelyn Mackintosh, 17, was looking forward to studying physiology and political science at McGill University in Canada. "Five months ago, a gap year was definitely not in the cards," she says. But McGill is in Montreal, Canada's Covid-19 hotspot, leaving Mackintosh anxious. Then she found out that McGill was making most of its classes online. "That morning, I wrote to the deferral department and I requested a deferral."

實際上，她對於是否開始上大學的猶豫不決不是個例。對於學生來說，這時候上大學不是很令人嚮往，尤其是在多數大學繼續收取全額學費的情況下。17歲的麥德琳·麥金託什本來很期待在加拿大的麥吉爾大學學習生理學和政治學。她說：“五個月前，我想都沒想過休間隔年。”但是麥吉爾大學位於加拿大的新冠疫情重災區蒙特利爾，這讓麥金託什感到焦慮。接着她又發現，麥吉爾大學的大部分課程都要在線上進行。“那天早上，我寫信給入學部，申請延期入學。”

Taking a gap year between high school and university is fairly common in many parts of Europe, the UK, Australia and New Zealand. In the US, the practice is less common, but attracted mainstream attention in 2016 when Barack Obama's daughter Malia took a gap year before attending Harvard University. Critics point out that the gap year is often an opportunity reserved for the wealthy. Yet the concept – and its pros and cons – is under increased scrutiny now as students all over the world weigh up their options for the year ahead.

在高中和大學之間休一個間隔年在歐洲多地、英國、澳大利亞和新西蘭都相當普遍。在美國，這種做法沒那麼常見，但是在2016年吸引了主流媒體的關注，當時奧巴馬的女兒瑪利亞在入讀哈佛大學前休了一個間隔年。批評人士指出，間隔年通常是富人才能享有的機會。不過現在間隔年的概念——及其利弊——隨着世界各地的學生都在權衡新學年的選擇，正受到越來越多的審視。

In a recent study on Covid-19 and university access, the London-based Sutton Trust found that one in five university applicants (19%) in the UK had changed their mind about university attendance for the 2020 academic year – whether in terms of their preferred university or by deferring a place in favour of a gap year.

總部在倫敦的薩頓信託在最近的一項針對新冠肺炎和大學入學的研究中發現，英國有五分之一（19%）報考大學的學生已經改變了主意——或者是心儀的大學改變了，或者是選擇延期入學，先休整一年。

In the US, a survey conducted in April by Baltimore-based consulting firm Art & Science Group found that 17% of students had changed their college plans due to Covid-19. Of those students, 16% indicated that they would take a gap year, while 17% said they would wait until the spring semester (which would start in January 2021) to enrol in university full-time. A third said they would enrol in university on a part-time basis.

在美國，總部在巴爾的摩的諮詢公司藝術和科學集團四月份開展的一項調查發現，疫情導致17%的學生改變了上大學的計劃。在這些學生當中，16%的人表示他們會休一個間隔年，17%的人表示他們會等到春季學期開學時（2021年1月）再入學進行全日制學習。三分之一的學生表示他們會採取非全日制的形式入學。

It's far from being an easy decision. Gabriel Hostin, 17, had decided before Covid-19 that he would take a gap year before attending Harvard. Now, he says, there are uncertainties surrounding his plans to travel internationally – something he hopes will change at the start of 2021. In terms of the immediate future, he's looking at domestic volunteer programmes including community work closer to the New York area, where he's from. For his peers who are going straight to university, he says there's concern about not being able to be on the campus when the academic year starts. "For me, that's not college," says Hostin.

這絕不是一個輕鬆的決定。17歲的加布裏埃爾·霍斯汀在疫情暴發前就決定要在入讀哈佛大學前休一個間隔年。現在，他表示自己出國旅遊的計劃有太多不確定性——他希望這一情況能在2021年初發生改變。眼下他計劃在國內參加一些志願項目，比如，在他所在的紐約附近參加社區工作。對於他那些打算直接上大學的同伴，他表示新學年開始時恐怕無法進校園。霍斯汀說：“對我來說，這不是大學生活。”

It's a sentiment that Joshua Kim and Edward Maloney, authors of Learning Innovation and The Future Of Higher Education, understand. But Kim, the director of online programs and strategy at Dartmouth College, says, "I think you really have to distinguish between true gap year experiences and simply stopping for a year or waiting for a year."

《學習創新和高等教育的未來》一書的作者約書亞·金和愛德華·馬龍尼能理解這種感受。但是在達特茅斯學院擔任在線課程和策略部主任的金表示：“我認爲你真的必須將真正的間隔年經歷和停一年或等一年區分開來。”

Kim, whose daughter took a gap year in South Korea through a US-government funded initiative, says that for a gap year to be valuable, it needs to be educational and ideally have a structured component. That's extremely difficult to do right now, says Maloney, with social distancing rules and travel restrictions likely to be in place for the foreseeable future. Having an unplanned and unstructured gap year that essentially equates to a "leave of absence" can be detrimental to students, say Kim and Maloney, because they're more likely to lose their momentum and decide not to attend college altogether.

金的女兒通過參加美國政府資助的一個項目在韓國度過了間隔年。金指出，要度過一個有價值的間隔年，必須有教育意義，理想的情況下應該有組織有條理。馬龍尼說，現在要做到這點極爲困難，因爲在可預見的未來應該還會有社交隔離規定和旅行限制令。金和馬龍尼說，沒有計劃、沒有組織的間隔年本質上等同於休假一年，這對學生是有害的，因爲他們很可能會失去動力，最後乾脆決定不上大學。

"The good news is there is no wrong decision. The bad news is there is no right decision either," says Michelle Dittmer, president and co-founder of the Canadian Gap Year Association.

加拿大間隔年協會的主席和共同創立者米歇爾·迪特默說：“好消息是沒有錯誤的決定。壞消息是也沒有正確的決定。”

For those who struggle to find meaningful activities, Dittmer suggests thinking about using the skills you have to help organisations that might benefit.

對於那些正在努力尋找有意義的活動的學生，迪特默建議他們考慮運用自己擁有的技能去幫助那些有需要的機構。