The adults in her life failed her. 

I have always been a little suspicious of alternative schooling methods. 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. 

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 rather than having a curriculum forced on them, but without any real structure, kids’ basic educational needs can easily slip through the cracks. Kids aren’t going to intuit exactly what they need to learn unless someone presents them with a curriculum. There are some kids who are more advanced and want more information than what the standard 3rd-grade curriculum provides, but they are the exception to the rule. They still need the standard curriculum as a foundation of knowledge, as does everyone. 

The teen in this story has been failed by her parents, who taught her how to read at age 12, and haven’t done much since. They want her to be the one directing her learning, but she can’t do that because she lacks discipline, and who could blame her? Nobody has done anything to educate her for her entire life.