When You Get into Unschooling, It’s Almost Like a Religion
I was homeschooled until the age of around 10, and then my family adopted a new approach called &quot;lifestyle of learning&quot;, which is just another way of saying &quot;unschooling&quot;.<p>Basically, I was allowed to skip schoolwork, as long as I was doing <i>something</i> productive.<p>I hated schoolwork, so I started spending all my spare time tinkering with stuff on the computer. I wasn&#x27;t allowed to play video games (since they aren&#x27;t productive), but I was allowed to BUILD video games. I was also allowed to build web sites and do programming.<p>By the age of 13, I was doing contract web development work, and by the age of 16, I was employed full time at a local web development company.<p>My parents wouldn&#x27;t let me get a drivers license and car until I had at least passed the GED, so I spent a couple of months cramming for it by studying a 2 inch thick book about how to pass the GED. I passed it without too much trouble (I think I got a 98% in math, if I remember correctly).<p>My career has developed across multiple companies over the last 20 years, and I&#x27;m currently making around $150K a year as a software engineer. I never did go to college.<p>They took &quot;unschooling&quot; even further with my younger brother. He didn&#x27;t even learn how to read until he was around 10. He ended up having to cram for his GED to get a drivers license, too. He ultimately ended up getting a job as a waiter, then as bank teller, then put himself through college and got a degree. He now owns a house worth around $400K and has a career as a software engineer at the banking company that initially hired him as a teller.<p>TL;DR: &quot;Unschooling&quot; worked for my family because they combined it with at least a base of traditional education.