I have seen a lot of people claim that they let their children learn only from their surroundings (by osmosis) as they explore and observe and they call it unschooling.
It will not work in the teen years or beyond - what a child needs is directed learning (it could be in the areas that they like), strong study skills (which have to be taught in my experience), executive functioning and a method to ensure that they do not have any gaps in their knowledge.
I agree, though I'm not sure it would even work past a much younger age that would vary with each kid.
Kids do learn by osmosis to a certain degree --- language, for example, isn't expressly taught (though it's presumably also hard-wired by evolution, like walking). HG+ kids can learn more by osmosis than most other kids, but there comes a point when that process breaks down. IMO, one area at high risk for osmosis failure is when the child has to produce something, like a written sentence, a set of written sentences answering questions, or a coherent argument in a short expository paper. And then there is learning how to do something when you don't want to do it. Unschooling, by definition, is child-driven, and it doesn't seem to me that it will teach a child how to do what his boss wants him to do.
