I had several friends back in the day with solid "traditional" educational backgrounds with pretty much the same dilemma. Sort of a "now what"? I think part of the problem is that, well, it's not "over" when you get the degree, walk out the gates on the last day, or for that matter, finish your manhood/womanhood rites.

It's just starting.

You may have to move (similar to what ErikZ hinted at) - figure out an "adventure", what you need to live on & go live somewhere else. Save up and take a trip somewhere to stay for a while and try it out. Most importantly, see what you can find to do, and keep yourself open to opportunity.

I sure as hell never would have guessed where I've ended up based on my schooling experiences, or rather, I would have been pretty far off had I tried. :)

The answer is out there, but YOU have to be the one to spot the one that's for you.

Well, there have been some great responses from folks who've been unschooled, and I don't think I can hope to match those, so I'll settle for making some comments from someone currently in "Year 11" of unschooling my daughter.

We started homeschooling purely due to concerns with the "roundedness" of current public school education. So no religious or "those people" concerns here.

I was initially skeptical of the idea, with one of my comments in arguing against it was that "I survived public school", which I realized later on was a pretty telling comment. Once I agreed to go along with it, at least initially, I've been pretty impressed with the workings of it.

In unschooling, the role of the parent is something of a guide. We're here to point out potential pitfalls (like: "unplug that toaster before you open it. In fact, let's have a discussion about the role of electricity & the human body!") and provide resources (like: "Here's Wikipedia, have fun!" (kidding!)). Learning is up to the child. JUST like it is in public/private/any school environment.

If I could pick out a primary tenet of "unschooling" it's that "School doesn't just happen in between the rings of a bell". My daughter responds to kids she hangs out with who say, with awe "You mean you never go to school?" with a sometimes wistful "No, it means I'm always in school." Really. When in your life after you leave formalized education do you study a subject, a bell rings and you change subjects? Sure it may happen from time to time (phone rings, time for an appointment) but not every hour of every day. This is what unschooling is against.

You do end up with some odd results. My daughter didn't start reading until what I consider rather late (8-ish). OTOH, now that she IS reading, she reads at a very high rate with high comprehension & retention. Weirdly, she also INSISTS that we taught her to read, when we did no such thing. (Unless you count us reading to her or helping her learn the spelling and structures of words).

Socialization? C'mon be serious. She's been in about 10 plays, does science workshops, is getting ready to do a project where kids take on roles in the running of a small "city". She's done philosophy clubs, baseball and rocketry, nature studies, fencing and archery, goes to YMCA summer camps - she's dealt with many of the "social" issues folks have brought up & in a much more controlled environment than "and the teacher mentioned this has been going on for weeks."

Downsides? Nerve-making for the parents (at least for me). There's no one else to "blame" if anything goes south, although so far, so good. It's a little hectic sometimes, but when I really sit back and think about it - I'd have killed to have had this kind of opportunity when I was a kid. Which is definitely something that makes me think it's worth it.

Anyways, like I said, just some thoughts - I'm just one parent who unschools, and figured I'd throw in my $.02.

Maybe something under the UN Auspices? Likely they would need some sort of Amalgamated "police" force to handle enforcement and tracking down of illicit organ trafficing, but it could be made up from people from many different Regions. Then this, "Militia", if you will could handle the issue apolitically. I dunno, for some reason this sounds familiar ...

Oh, dear God, I'd forgotten about "TEH TERRORUSTS".

Listen up, and by: "Listen up", I only peripherally mean YOU. I really direct this to the people who use "TEH TERRORUST!" as a way of trying to make it sound like we have some major concern here in our tough, tough, post-9/11 world.

Let me direct you to a simpler time of life, a time when Reagan's and Kennedy's walked the earth.

A simpler time when people lived with the idea the upwards of 50% of the USA, USSR, and chunks of Europe's populations could be dead in under an hour's time. Yeah, right. Ooooh, scary terrorists.

Hell, I'll take terrorists any day of the week over continuing to live with that. Hell, I'll take terrorists over living with the fear that my village was going to be raided and a member of my family killed. I think my odds are STILL better with the terrorists.*

*Note: Offer not valid in Israel, Palestine, Afghanistan, Most of the Middle East, Iraq, Sierra Leone, Iraq, Indonesia, Iraq, Chechnya, Sudan, Iraq, and Tennessee.