There are people who say “I'll never need this math -- these trig identities from 10th grade or 11th grade.” Or maybe you never learned them. Here's the catch: whether or not you ever use the math that you learned in school, the act of having learned the math established a wiring in your brain that didn't exist before, and it's the wiring in your brain that makes you the problem solver.
> That said, for most people the purpose of school is to prepare them to be able to support themselves and their families, and it sounds like he's basically able to do that now.
The real question you have to ask is whether you can do both (impractical and practical) -- if you can do both, then it is clearly better than doing one.
You may not realize it now, but a lot of things that seem impractical can become very useful (or at the very least, fascinating) when provided with the right context. For example, if you ever want to learn about how your computer works on the inside, knowing basic physics will give you better perspective on what's happening. More obscure stuff like Quantum Tunneling starts appearing in technologies like NAND flash memory -- it's not necessarily practical to know all that, but I'm very happy that I know it.
Forget I even said anything.
Veritasium - http://www.youtube.com/user/1veritasium
Sixty Symbols - http://www.sixtysymbols.com/
Periodic Videos - http://www.periodicvideos.com/
Crash Course - http://www.youtube.com/user/crashcourse
The Brain Scoop - http://www.youtube.com/thebrainscoop
Smarter Every Day - http://www.youtube.com/destinws2
Vi Hart - http://www.youtube.com/vihart
George Hart - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCTl0dASnxto6j2wlVs5Bs2Q
Numberphile - http://www.numberphile.com/
Vsauce - http://www.youtube.com/user/Vsauce
TED-Ed - http://www.youtube.com/teded
MinuteEarth - http://www.youtube.com/user/minuteearth
You don't know what you don't know. You can have a fine career in programming without math -- but with math you can have many great careers.
Keep taking math and working hard at it. Stop when it gets too hard.
Two of my three favorite classes in college were math classes -- combinatorics and algorithms.
If possible, learning physics and managing a Minecraft hosting company is clearly better than just the latter.
and we're not talking a lemonade stand. he's doing the heavy lifting at a hosting company; networking, Linux administration, programming.
all of which are disciplines in their own right
do you really think he'll have trouble rounding himself out by reading broadly?
School is something you can always come back to, but once you start into the family/kids part of your life it becomes a lot more difficult for most people. The best time to be in school is when you don't have any responsibilities to support anyone else.