Let's imagine though that he wasn't gifted. And, that he was entering high school age with elementary school level reading and math skills. That would be an entirely different story.
But he is gifted. As are many other kids.
As I understood your previous post (and please correct me if I'm wrong), you're basically arguing that it is "urban legend" for a kid to make leaps of that nature, that you don't believe it *has* ever happened because you don't believe it *could* happen.
And while I completely agree with you that it is NOT a good idea to bank on that sort of leap to salvage a crummy education, especially if a kid a) is not a gifted learner, b) doesn't have a solid math foundation, and c) isn't a really driven sort of kid, I don't think it is impossible for a kid of a certain sort to make that leap.
I think what is less likely, actually, is that a kid who never showed a bit of interest in a subject over many years would suddenly become driven to master it. Interests usually develop over time, even in kids like mine who tend to form "serial obsessions." But even in my kids, their interests are pretty predictable. They don't spring from nothing into fully-formed career paths.
I guess what I'm saying is that I'd take issue with the ridiculous question "What if he decides he wants to be an astronaut and he has missed all those years of science learning?" But I think the answer GreenGully offered is not impossible under certain, specific circumstances.
As a side note: I think it is important to distinguish between people who take unschooling seriously and people who use unschooling as an excuse to neglect their kids' education. Your last response to GreenGully seems to me to be talking about the latter, while she is talking about the former.
