But at the age school typically starts a child is too young to understand the consequences of not getting an education. The fact that they are free to snack, play games and watch cartoons all day instead of learning to read and write is seen as awesome when you are five or six years old and would rather play and eat fruit snacks.
Parents that can't see what a disaster they are visiting upon their kids' futures should be held accountable for that. I think compulsory schooling is necessary. Maybe for some teens who are still too young to quit something in the line of transferring to job training instead of standard curriculum would actually be a good idea. But these unschooled kids are pretty much going nowhere in life thanks to their exceptional parents.
I always fear it could be a cover up for abuse in some cases. Just look at the Schofields and their two "schizophrenic" kids. Just heavily medicated zombies whose entire childhoods have been a blur.
I suppose I should clarify;
My thinking is that we should allow for people to carve their own path, mistakes included. That doesn't mean that they shouldn't be held accountable for their errors though. I'm thinking education and other similar responsibilities should be packaged with governmental privileges; so if you want society to support you, then you need to educate your child to society's expectations, or if you want to use the roads then you need to pay your taxes, etc.
I feel that people shouldn't be forced into non-negotiable contracts. I mean if some parents want to raise a nonverbal neet who can only communicate through minecraft's scripting language, they should be able to do so, as long as they bear the responsibility of the results. There will be extreme cases, but I think it is not without benefit, as sometimes an alternative learning method may actually produce good results. However, we can't explore that potential if we push everybody down the same path.
I just don't think we should force all people follow to the same path, though I'll acknowledge doing so has some real benefits, and the alternatives have some real problems. I get that children can't be trusted to make good decisions, but that's what parents are for. and if their biological parents aren't allowed to parent them, then the government takes their place, and that isn't always going to be for the better.
For real though, the people brought up in this thread seem to be pretty exceptional.