18-year-old homeschool graduate can't sound out words or do basic addition: 'She couldn't calculate 50% of $30. She couldn't count to 30 at her fast-food job.'

I have always been a little suspicious of alternative methods of schooling. I know that there are some parents out there who are completely competent at teaching their kids from Kindergarten to 12th grade, but I highly doubt that's the majority of homeschoolers. Most of the time, kids who do their schooling at home would be better off in the hands of an online teacher who can hold them accountable for their work because they're not their mom or dad. 

Most homeschoolers probably fall somewhere in the middle of the two extremes of "Kids who are so Harvard-bound that their parents have to homeschool them because no private or public school can keep up with their intellect" and "Kids who spend all day scrolling through TikTok and not attending school because their parents can't bother to enroll them or teach them at home."

Unschooling is one of the worst offenders in terms of educational neglect. Unschooling is "an informal learning method that prioritizes learner-chosen activities as a primary means for learning." Now, it might sound utopian for kids to learn what they choose to learn instead of having a curriculum forced on them, but without any real structure, kids' basic educational needs can easily slip through the cracks.