The Question Is College

Kohl ( Thirty-Six Children ; The Age of Complexity ) here offers research and personal experience in support of his assertion that ``college may not be the only route to a full, rewarding adult life.'' His practical advice and evidence, garnered from his work as a counselor, will inform and reassure parents concerned about their children's rejection of college as the next step after high school. Instead of immediate higher education, Kohl recommends that high-school graduates take a year or so to explore vocational choices--as increasing numbers of young people are, in fact, doing. He stresses also that work, as much as education, should bring personal fulfillment at any age. This is a useful guide, one that should assuage anxieties of pressured high-school seniors and worried parents. Author tour. (Oct.)