I agree this is an AND situation, and to many of my fellow home-edders have gone for 'or' and are in a more unschooling than home-schooling situation.

The issue for me in this is Supervision (which I define as distinct from 'authority' - the latter is dictating the story, the former is one who sees something the other cannot _yet).

But you have hit the nail upon the head as to where the answer is : to trust in life, or not.

Prescriptive education does not trust life to present the child with exactly what it needs for a future we cannot see.

Unschooling does.

Home Ed lies somewhere in between...(nervously, in my case)