Author Offers ‘Choices’ for High School Grads

Author Bryna Fireside has three children. All were out of high school by age 16.

Her daughter, Leela, started college at 15; Douglas graduated at 16 and got a job; Daniel also finished at 16 and went to California.

So what happened to tradition? Why didn’t they just graduate after 12th grade and go straight to college?

First of all, they’re three unusual kids, bright and nonconformist, who followed their parents’ encouragement to live a little differently, take chances and break a few rules if necessary.

Also, as Fireside points out in “Choices: A Student Survival Guide for the 1990s” ($10.95, Garrett Park Press), the rules have changed. Options for high school students are broader and more accessible than even she considered possible.

“If you don’t have a good reason for being there, you shouldn’t be in college,” said Fireside, a free-lance writer and supervisor of student teachers at Cortland State College. “It’s an expensive proposition that can really be a marvelous experience if you know what it is you’re after.

“There are so many things kids can do by spending a year away. By the time they get to college, they at least know what they don’t want. They know it’s hard to make friends in a workplace at a low-level job. For kids who travel and are willing to take that step in another part of the world, that can also be an eye-opener.”

Fireside had written magazine articles about high school students who “stop out”--take time off before college--and researched internship programs and summer schools.

The students impressed her and so did the parents. For adults, “Choices” is a friendly arm around the shoulder from an experienced mother and writer.

The message: Relax, trust your child.

“I was talking to someone in a large suburban area and I mentioned I had written about ‘stopping out’ between high school and college. One parent said, ‘What if she never decides to go to college?’

“If parents value education, the kids will also value education. That’s a very hard concept for parents to accept. A lot of parents think if they don’t guide the kids all the way, if they let them step out of the mold, all will be lost. People mature at different rates. We ought to be able to recognize it in teens.”

“Choices” could be called “The Conceptual Guide to Continuing Education.”

Structured like a school workbook, Fireside’s book leaves room in the margins for notes and comments and names dozens of organizations to contact.

Call it pop education as well, important ideas available to all.

“There’s a lot of information out there, but it’s not readily accessible to kids. A lot of guidance counselors don’t have information either, or the kids don’t feel comfortable with guidance counselors.

“The information doesn’t seem to be in the bookstores. It’s a nice, thin book (111 pages), and easy to read.”

Fireside includes chapters on internships, travel and jobs programs. She also discusses the military, a sensitive topic for a longtime activist who once organized the anti-nuclear Tasteful Ladies for Peace.

But “Choices” means all choices, and for millions the military is a serious option.

“It is a very important part of American life. For those kids that feel there’s something they can contribute to their country, this is a good way to do it and get a free education. But the object of the military is not to educate, but to teach how to kill.”

Education, Fireside noted, can be resumed at any time, and not only the young take chances. The most exciting time of her own life came in her 40s when she went back to school, earning a degree in children’s literature at Cornell University.

Fireside continues to be challenged by her own children, especially by Daniel, who at 19 is spending his junior year of college in Peru and hasn’t hesitated to get involved in that country’s turbulent politics.

“Even when I didn’t agree with what my kid was doing, it was very exciting seeing my kid doing something he likes doing,” she said. “We all want our kids to be productive and think more about other things than just themselves.

“Many of the kids I talked to were not rebels, but pretty bright kids who just had something else they wanted to do. What I’m basically saying is that you don’t have to plan out your whole life, you can just plan six months.”