Still groggy, jet-lagged and somewhat light-headed from a few days in the wine country, I turned on Good Morning America before work. It really took no time at all for me to be inserting my unsolicited two cents into each segment and critiquing what seems to me to be the exaggerated stupidity of people. I actually concluded that yes, some people are--how shall we say--smart-challenged.

The most irritating story of the morning detailed the phenomena of "un-schooling" children. Come again? Apparently, there's a new philosophy of education where children don't go to school, they stay home all day with no textbooks, no tests, no formal education whatsoever. The parents have a completely hands-off approach to their children when it comes to school. The kids make their own decisions, they have no chores and no rules.

So, what happens when your child needs to know about algebra, for example? Well, according to one un-schooler, if the child needs it, she will find the information she is seeking.

I wonder how that works for a job later on. What do you put on your resume? I went to the school of myself. I was taught by the world-renowned professor: me; I graduated after I decided I was ready oh and yes, I want to work for you.

This all sounds like big heaping pile of something extra-stinky. Regardless, of all the 56 million schoolage kids, 1.5 million are home-schooled and at least 100,000 of those are un-schooled. One un-schooler family detailed their lives in which the kids faced no punishment, judgment or even discipline.

This free-for-all sounds like a sorry excuse for parents to just be lazy. Whether they like it or not, parents have non-delegable duties that they owe to their children. These include, at least, discipline and education so that their offspring don't become demonic cretins. We, as members of society, deserve that.

One cannot live life by doing just what "feels rights." That's nonsense. Of course children who aren't doing well in school will be the ones who will say that they don't want to go. Most people don't want to do what is required--and especially not if they aren't doing it right and it takes time to learn something. If I wanted to stay home and play with my Barbie dolls on a daily basis and my mother let me, I think that would have affected not only my learning, but my entire work ethic. I wouldn't have any sense of urgency or respect about my profession; on days when I wanted to sleep in or just vegetate on the couch, I would not come in to work. Two times of that and I would be jobless.

This un-schooling cannot be good.

Parents who allow their children to be un-schoolers should be ashamed of themselves. First, there are millions of children alive in the world today who would love to attend school and to learn in a formal setting. To do so would be a blessing to them and a luxury. This should mean something to these parents' -- one would hope. Second, thought it may be the "it" thing to do now or the easiest thing for the parents, it is absolutely the worst thing for a child. Not only do kids need a quality education and social skills acquired through relationships with classmates, but they also need to learn basic subjects like some math, science, writing, reading and history. How can a student live and thrive or even participate in society with these basic building blocks in place!

I would go so far as to say that these un-schooler parents are guilty of some form of child neglect. I wonder if any of them were unschoolers?