As usual, internet comments stray toward the trollish, but I'm a little surprised as I consider Neatorama's audience a little more intelligent than average.

The idea that kids who are not in school are not learning is utter hogwash. Humans enjoy learning. It's what we do. Kids enjoy mastering new ideas and skills, but not when it's crammed down their throats. What school taught you how to walk? To speak? Have you learned nothing since leaving school? Think of the things you feel are most important to know in the life you live day to day. How many of those things were learned in school, and how many were learned by simply living them? How many were forgotten since school, but re-learned because you didn't have a use for that information at the time?

It's easy to think that unschooling means 'hands off' and that it's a lazy form of parenting. In truth, it's simply allowing your children to approach concepts and areas of inquiry when they're ready for them and can immediately apply them, not at some pre-determined step along a cookie-cutter curriculum.

It is our jobs as unschooling parents to provide a rich wealth of experience so our children understand that there is a complex, wide world beyond the four walls of our house; that this world has certain expectations of them; how to set goals and achieve them. But we're not taskmasters, we're guides. Unschoolers do enter traditionally 'academic' fields of endeavor - and they're free to aggressively pursue those interests deeply and satisfyingly instead of being shuttled from classroom to classroom, from subject to subject every 40 minutes. They're free to intern with experts in the field. They're free to seek out traditional classes in the subjects of their choice, if they like. And yes, they're free to fail and learn from those mistakes as well.

For those who would like to step beyond their initial judgemental reaction and actually learn more about how unschooling is lived in practice, this is a good site to start with:
http://www.sandradodd.com/unschooling

OK, think of a song from 'Top Gun'. It was either 'Danger Zone' by Kenny Loggins or 'Take My Breath Away' by Berlin, right?

I think the article's author just has a weakness for sweaty guys with their shirts off.