"My boys are unschooled. One is a doctor. One still can't read at 19."

This woman’s sons did not go to school – they learned ‘organically’ at home. One now has a PHD and works for Google. Others don’t meet basic literacy requirements. Meet the Unschoolers. 

From the age of five we never really escape school. We start, finish, go to uni, get a job, get married, have kids, and then we’re back at school. There are drop offs, pick-ups, books, pencils, uniforms, homework. But what if we simply walked away from all of that? What if we didn’t participate in formal education at all?

Meet the families who opted out.  They have embraced Unschooling. Which is not homeschooling – it’s no schooling at all.

For unschoolers, there are no classes, no subjects, no sitting down to complete assigned activities and no tests.

These children are expected to pick up skills like reading, writing and maths through normal life, when they are ready, naturally, organically.

Sometimes it turns out great. Other times it’s a spectacular failure.

The Clarks, from Toowoomba in Queensland, decided to remove their children from school when their eldest Jemima began to struggle. She has Aspergers (a disorder on the autism spectrum) and found school extremely difficult. Her parents Rachel and George saw such an positive change in their daughter that they decided to remove her younger sister Milly from school too. Their son William has never been to school and their baby never will.

Rachel feels that formal education isn't suited to all children. "I think our education system hasn't changed substantially in a lot of years and it still suits a lot of children. They're happy to do what the teachers ask, happy to learn as they're told in the order they're told - we learn the small bit to get to the bigger bit - some kids like our eldest they want to see the big picture, and then they'll fill in the gaps with the smaller bits when they need it."

So far, they appear to be an unschooling success story. Their children are learning and thriving. Rachel and George organise activities and outings for their children, making sure that experiences and opportunities to learn about life replace formal education. Rachel has taught them to read and they borrow books from the library each week.

What happens next will be fascinating to watch, but the lessons of the Sing family will give them both hope and pause for thought.

The Sing brothers are five boys from Bendigo in rural Victoria whose mum Carlene, a former teacher, decided to unschool all her children with very mixed results.

Carlene lost faith in the education system. "When I learned that children naturally have a love of learning and they want to find out things for themselves I simply allowed for that," she told 60 Minutes.

Joel, the oldest, has a PhD in information Technology and works for Google, Dion, 30, is a social worker, Tali is at uni studying music, Eric wants to do that too, Liam, 19, works with horses.

To qualify for tertiary education Joel, at 24, decided to do a computing course and then did more courses and moved on to uni. Some of his brothers followed in his footsteps.

However Carlene admits it took a while for her boys to learn to read and write, and not all of them meet basic literacy requirements. Children in school learn to read when they are six. Two of Carlene's boys picked a bit up at 11 and 12, struggling to read in particular. Another two were 14 when they started to read and Liam at 19 still finds it difficult to read.

"I've struggled with reading and writing a lle bit," Liam told 60 Minutes. "I just know that I've always found it really really difficult to read and write."

Dion didn't learn to write, and not very well, until he was in his 20s. "I think I only really learned to write maybe, it might be seven years ago when I've actually had to. Up until then I've just got out of it or avoided it in any way that I could."

Then there are the extreme unschooling examples that they call 'radical unschooling'. And others call unparenting.

The 'free-range schooling' movement is being pushed by mother and author Dayna Martin who has created a website devoted to radical unschooling. She has also written a book on the topic.

Her philosophy is simple - her children get to do whatever they like, whenever they like, including when they eat, what they eat and what time they go to bed.

Danya insists her children do make good decisions for themselves most of the time. "They make really good choices for themselves. Our kids go to bed when they're tired, they wake up when they're rested. Freedom and trust are the basis of this life but I know it's really hard for most parents."

Joe admits at times it can be challenging. One night five-year-old Orion decided to jump on the trampoline in the middle of the night. He went to bed at 3.05am that day.

What do you think of Unschooling? Can you see any benefit to keeping kids out of formal education?

Images courtesy of 60 Minutes on Channel 9.