I've got two daughters who are not going through the school system. They can both read and do basic math just fine even though they were never forced at any point. They've also learned things at a different ages.

My oldest who is just about to turn 18 is an amazingly talented artist/designer. She has skills in those areas that blow away anything I've seen from someone her age (or any age) and she has spent a lot more time honing those skills than she would be able to if she went to school. She is going into a product design program (accepted based on her portfolio). She doesn't know any calculus and that's not a problem. She knows what calculus is at least which is more than can be said for a lot of people and if she ever ends up needing that I'm sure she could pick it up.

Forcing someone to learn something they're not interested in generally has a pretty poor outcome. How many great piano players HATE playing the piano? Zero. It's true that some of them might have been forced at some time to practice more but it's definitely not true that if you take the average child and just force them to play the piano they're going to become great. More likely to become psychopaths IMO. And how exactly do you force them?

How would you like if we put you to "piano camp" for the next 6 years? Or pick the subject you're least interested in... We need to respect people's individuality and kids are people too... That doesn't mean you can't push them sometimes.