GAP YEAR

gain more skills to become a more attractive candidate for jobs than those who go straight from school to
university.

employers are particularly interested in the skills students pick up while TRAVELLING, VOLUNTEERING and
WORKING because they do not trust univerities to teach the arts of COMMUNICATION, TEAMWORK and LEADERSHIP.

Reasons why students take gap years:
- happy to be out of the system and want to do something interesting or crazy
- earn money to pay for their university fees
- want to do something useful with their lives
- get away from home and see the world while they can
- prepare themselves better for the job market once they get their degree

School leavers can choose from a wide range of activities for their gap year:
expedition to some remote corner of the earth, which can really be exciting and has the advantage of
travelling as a part of a group and making some life-long friends.

work on a conservation or enviromental project (eg. conducting underwater survey of coral reef or
monitoring an endagered species).

temporary or seasonal work abroad, get insight into a very different way of life.

join a humanitarian project, such as doing social work with people in need.

join a structured work programme and gain valuable experience and practical skills in their chosen
field.

Some locations aren't for the faint-hearted
voluntary work can be tough - you may be out in the middle of nowhere, feeling isolated and having
trouble coping with the complete culture shock.

it's important to research the opportunities fully and take time to read what other 'gappers' have to
say about their experience of volunteering overseas.

it's also important to plan the year properly, if you dont take advantage od the opportunities on offer
the gap will turn into a blank hole.

Students who are doing volunteering get an awful lot of good experiences.
Employers are falling over themselves for those maturing skills which they think univerities don't give.

LOOKING AFTER YOURSELF
HIV is a virus and AIDS is a severe deficiency in the immune system which is caused by the HIV virus.
The deficiency in the immune system means that the body is unable to resis infection.
The virus kills white blood cells called T-cells which help protect the body from infection.
This means the body is extremely vulnerable to diseases caused by bacteria and viruses (opportunistic infections)
and to certain types of cancer.
HIV positive does not mean you have acquired AIDS.
When you get an opportunistic infection you are diagnosed as having AIDS.
Research has shown that more than 50% of people with HIV will develop AIDS within 7 to 10 years, and that
nearly all will eventually be diagnosed as suffering from it.
Early treatment can prolong health.

HOW TO GET INFECTED:
- through direct contact with bodily fluids (blood, fluids exchanged in sexual intercourse and breast milk)
- intravenous drug users (people who inject drugs into themselves) are particularly at risk
(infected blood can remmain in an unsterilised needle and then be injected into the bloodstream)
- any unsterilised equipment used for injecting or piercing the human body (tattooing or piercing ears ...)
- blood transfusions (as a result of better screening of blood donations infections are rare [less than 1 in
40 000])
- mothers can infect their children (during pregnancy, giving birth or breastfeeding)
- biting (if there is infected blood in the biter's saliva, first confirmed case in Slovenia in 1996. )

The virus isn't airborne (it can't be transmitted through the air).
You can't get it from everyday contact or from vomit, sweat, tears, sputum or urine unless it contains blood.
You can't get it from an insect bite because HIV is unable to live in insect organisms.
You can't get it from swimming pools, baths, toilets, food, cups, towels, telephones ...

If you don't have HIV, then there is absolutely no real reason why you should ever become infected.
You have direct control over the majority of activities that could involve the transmission of the virus.
Condoms aren't 100% safe. They prevent contact with bodily fluids and significantly reduce the risk of infection
but can break or leak.



NATURE VERSUS NURTURE
The question of nature versus nurture, that is, what is inherited versus the effect of the enviroment, has long
been a subject of debate.
The debate began in 1690 when John Locke published works that argued against two traditional beliefs that had
shaped the European politics and religion.
- the first belief was that poeple were born with certain qualities that justified their position
- the second belief was that people were born with Original Sin --> we are natural born sinners
- both beliefs concerned 'predestination' --> some people were born to become kings, other to go to Hell

John Locke proposed that all humans were born equal.
- the mind of a new-born baby way like white paper devoid of all characters, without any ideas
- this is known as tabula rasa or Blank Slate theory
- everyone should have the right to life, liberty and happiness as everyone else
- we are what we make ourselves to be
- this was the beginning of the modern concept of liberal democracy
- everything we know and can do is learned not inherited --> what we become is completely determined
by the enviroment

The tabula rasa theory was disproved by Charles Darwin in his book Origin of Species by Means of Natural
Selection published in 1859.
- enviromental forces that acted on the population resulted in the survival of those best fitted to the
enviroment, a process he called natural selection.
- the survivors would breed and pass their successful traits on to their offspring

This view was taken up by Francis Galton.
- published a study which found that children whose parents were 'eminent' were 240 times more likely
to attend university compared with the rest of the population.
- the difference in success rate was primarily due to inherited factors
- the first to study identical twins and founf similarities between such twins throughout their lives
- what is inherited dictated our lives rather than the effect of the enviroment

Galton went on to develop the concept of eugenics.
- the word which he invented for the study of methods for improving the mental and physical ablities of
human population by selective breeding.
- he didn't have children of his own
- he didn't forsee the hijacking of eugenics by fanatics who wanted to impose their own views on the rest
of society
- by 1935 all the US states segregated people with mental disabilities and 35 states had compulsory
sterilisation (20 000 people were sterilised in California alone)
- in Germany the nazi party, in 1933 with their concept of the 'Maste Race', began the sterilisation of
thousands of people with traits like schizophrenia (which escalated to the slaughter of millions in
death-camps like Auschwitz)

Ivan Petrovich Pavlov and John Watson sugested that the way we behave is the result of experience.
- they showed that a response is conditioned by a stimulus, that is, our behaviour is a response to the
world around us
- Pavlov conditioned dogs to salivate at the sound of a bell
- Watson conditioned an infant to have an irrational fear of rabbits
- the behaviourists conclusion was that all human abilities are the result of enviromental interaction
rather that inherited traits

In 1975 Edward Wilson published his influential book Sociobiology.
- in his study of ants as social insects, he observed that, when groups of ants fight, some would sacrifice
themselves to save others
- he proposed that. when worker ants die in defence of their nest, they increase the chances of their
genes survival even though they die in the attempt
- the genetic influence was the only explanation for such complex social behaviour

In 1998 Judith Harris published her paper psychological Review claimed that the way parents behave towards
their children had little effect on what the children become.
- it was the childs genes, not the enviroment, that determined their behaviour