Ben was going far beyond the sort of work he would do in high school. In the seventh grade I found I became more and more dissatisfied. My attendance started to drop. I still made A's and B's, but I began to resent the busywork they made us do. I understood most of the concepts they taught almost immediately, so doing a lot of homework when I already understood the material seemed like a waste of time.
High school is a lot of jumping through hoops.
While he sees it as a logical decision, Ben gets many questions when people learn that he is unschooling. In fact, there are an increasing number of texts by reputable authorities that challenge traditional education methods. Of course, home or unschooling simply isn't an option for most American households because both parents work. And even educational experts like Alice Tomasini of Cal Poly's University Center for Teacher Education, who counts herself a proponent of self-directed learning, suggests that unschooling is not the panacea to cure all our educational woes. Education in a democracy must balance subject matter, society, and students as basis for curriculum development.