I think that things you are forced to read are generally more boring. Even things in college that I was interested in became monotonous when I was forced to read the subject material, whereas things that I decided to research organically were always entertaining and I could spend hours looking into the subject without feeling fatigued.
Thinking that kids are different or incapable of learning on their own is just people wanting kids to go through the same meat grinder of education that they did. My partner was unschooled, and after talking to her and getting over the initial reaction of "that's nuts" I feel like it actually makes a ton of sense. The data support it. I don't care if you're kid can't read at 7 -- if it's not due to a disability such as dyslexia -- and neither does their future education.
What does "unschooled" mean? Did they just test into a GED/college, or have they never been in an educational institution? What do they do now (feel free not to answer that kind of personal question, but I honestly never really thought of "unschooled as a concept and this is sending me down a rabbit hole)?
Unschooling typically means avoiding traditional educational institutions, letting your kids learn the things that they want to learn -- in the effort to foster inquisitiveness -- by just interacting with the world. For instance, someone who believed in unschooling wouldn't tell their kids to learn how to read, but when they become interested in reading because they think that books are cool, they would help them learn, likely through something like a voluntary class.
My partner made her own decision to go to high school as she was interested in going on to college. A lot of her friends were interested in college and managed to get in because of their work that they'd been doing on their own/SAT scores. Now she's a developer at Amazon, and a number of her friends went to top tier universities.
Of course a small number of them did nothing with their lives and live at home with their parents, but so did a larger percentage of people that I went to school with.
(also, I hate that I can't edit out that I put you're instead of your in a sentence about reading. the shame)
Thinking that kids are different or incapable of learning on their own is just people wanting kids to go through the same meat grinder of education that they did. My partner was unschooled, and after talking to her and getting over the initial reaction of "that's nuts" I feel like it actually makes a ton of sense. The data support it. I don't care if you're kid can't read at 7 -- if it's not due to a disability such as dyslexia -- and neither does their future education.