This was my reaction too. School provides myriad things other than simply vocational training—that's a very significant sacrifice. It could well be that this was known, discussed, and the verdict came in that the sacrifice was worthwhile, but I hope any parents considering a similar path would consider the whole meal instead of merely one dish.

Another point: You can denigrate the liberal arts all you like ("wasting her time [...] taking yet another history class") and reject the argument that familiarity with them produces more well-rounded individuals, but a big portion of working in any knowledge-based profession will involve writing. I hope this young lady will also be able to have and take advantage of opportunities to become a better writer, because most of those opportunities before turning 18 happen in school.

Really wish I knew why everyone automatically assumes that homeschooling is useless...

I'll give it a shot: I wouldn't say useless at all, but the main reason I won't be homeschooling my children is that I don't think I'm smart enough to do a better job than an entire school full of educators.

I'm sure various arguments can be made for whether or not that's true of different people (and teachers), but I grew up in a pretty mediocre school system and still had very smart teachers teaching cool classes that were so, so good because of their very specialized knowledge. I can see how K-8 might be much easier to replace with homeschooling, but I have a hard time with secondary school.

If my mom had taught me high school chemistry, for example, she could have gone through the book and lessons with me with minimum difficulty. But I had a chemistry teacher who'd left being a college professor/researcher so he could be back with younger students, and he was amazingly smart and fun to learn from. I'd have missed that completely.

The author of the article comes from another angle entirely: It's a situation where the high school teachers' specialized knowledge isn't nearly good enough. I get that too. If I was a quantum physicist, I'd bet dollars to donuts I could cook up a better physics student than your average college-prep science class -- but that doesn't mean I'd be better at everything else that happens in high school, too.

Well, the other side is that home schoolers do have to pass the same kind of tests and prove that they learned chemistry, history, math, blah. And in my experience, I approached history, math, and english with the attitude of "Ugh, this stupid subject, do the bare minimum to get out of here", so an amazing teacher wouldn't have really changed how much I learned.

Truly amazing teachers can break through that. I never had any in high school but I certainly had a couple in college.

Maybe because of the author's attitude: " All of a sudden I was frustrated that she was stuck wasting her time in high school taking yet another history class, when she could be doing what she wanted to do with her life and spending all day learning skills that will help her in her chosen career." This is the worst reason to take someone out if school, and enough to make me think her homeschooling will be skewed. Learning history and other arts and sciences is not a waste. She doesn't need to learn a career at 16. She just needs to learn

Agreed 100%. Why would you take all that away? You can go to school and still learn how to code.

I can't disagree more. I wouldn't call high school an 'outlet to try new things'. If she learns to be a developer by the age of 18 how is she tied down from doing anything else? I would say that self discovery is amplified outside of a high school environment not stifled.

I also think networking and making friends is also augmented outside of high school.

It's absolutely a place to try new things. Sports, Music, Theatre, Clubs, Social Groups, etc. It's much harder to get that experience outside of a place that gives it to you.

Outside of high school where are you going to meet new friends? You made friends by doing the activities that the school provided. Because it found people in the same age range that had similar interest.

Not every high school is the same, but I don't agree with your statement at all.

> Outside of high school where are you going to meet new friends?

Sports clubs, theatre clubs, Scouts, neighbours, Homeschooling groups...

Presenting to large groups at conferences, teaching the governor...

Thank you. Thought I was losing my mind with all these apocalyptic comments on how a sixteen year old girl dropping out of high school with a cohesive plan, and parental guidance, would suddenly be completely socially challenged and lacking any other ways to gain insights into the world.

Are her parents going to be her friends?

I can have my parents as my friends, and friends my age. Is it so odd for a teenage girl to be close to the people that raised her?

As a counterpoint, I started programming when I was 5, and have known what I wanted to do since I was 7 (shortly after writing my first program that someone else used). I did my first commercial software project when I was 16, and got stuck in 'trying new things' for several years because people (for example, parents, family, teachers) around me told me that I didn't really know what I want.

Doing that set back my career by several years over where I could have been.

If this was happening at an earlier age, it would be more questionable, but for the vast majority of human history people already knew what they would be doing for their lives and had training and experience by the time they were 16. She is young enough to change her mind, and will still finish high school. As for the social aspect, did you miss the part where she will attend a different education program?

Your anecdote doesn't apply here so it isn't a counterpoint. You knew "when [you were] 5" in contrast to the article:

> Last year I kind of coerced my daughter into taking a Web Design class at her high school.

Just one year and since 5-7 aren't the same or even ballpark.

> She is young enough to change her mind, and will still finish high school.

I don't follow. She won't be attending High School as her parents have withdrawn her.

> As for the social aspect, did you miss the part where she will attend a different education program?

Mostly with people much older than her. Look at some of the programs, they're adult education (i.e. people changing careers, or in-place of college). It is harder to socialise with people in different stages of their lives.

> Your anecdote doesn't apply here so it isn't a counterpoint.

Sure it does. When I was 16, despite knowing what I wanted to do, I succumbed to pressure from my parents and other family to 'try different things', which held me back.

> She won't be attending High School as her parents have withdrawn her.

Read, don't skim. She will attend classes to focus on development, while completing high school requirements online.

> Mostly with people much older than her.

So? My brother went to trade school and learned how to fix cars with people much older. My sister went to trade school and learned to be a hair stylist with people much older.

Like it or not, with industry looking to automate away the vast majority of blue collar work, software development skills will become a basic skill requirement and blue collar workers will be implementing the rules that automation follows, while white collar software development jobs will be the work creating the automation systems. (This is a massive simplification of some of the changes, but hey, I have a day job so I can't spend all day commenting :D)

Bottom line, the student will get a high school diploma, a marketable skill set, and a chance to be an early adopter of the disruptive changes to primary and secondary education that have been coming over the last generation.

The article states that she's going to finish high school online.

The general theme of the conversation down here seems to be around how "high school online" is a very, very different experience than "high school in high school." Socially, in particular.

There's an underlying assumption here that there are opportunities to be missed. She's already mostly through HS; this isn't like some isolated homeschooled situation. If you're 16, have an obvious lucrative career path right in front of you, you would be an idiot to spend hours writing AP History reports or whatever, especially if your interest in that topic is low.

16 isn't mostly through high school. Unless she's a year ahead, she is/was likely a sophomore, or only half-way through high school. And she's missing the best parts of those last two years - the large number of AP/IB courses offered at most American high schools.

And really, I'm not sure why anybody would be in such a rush to get a job. Money isn't everything.

How many tens of thousands of opportunity cost dollars would you pay to attend your high school's AP/IB courses?

Your point is diversifying experiences leads to more qualified decisions. Why can't America diversify educational experiences, to lead to more qualified educational tracks?

Take a look at the University Techical Colleges in the UK, eg for Life Sciences: http://utccambridge.co.uk/

Or for Computer Science: http://www.utcreading.co.uk/

Or for Mech Eng & manufacturing:http://www.derbymanufacturingutc.co.uk/

Palmer Luckey, inventor of the Oculus Rift, was homeschooled.

I wonder what opportunities he missed out on. Can he "socialize?" Maybe he would've done something better if he had taken AP History and went to prom.

Many questions...