Homeschool of Rock

(Jawdrop)

Most of us (north carolinians) think this is insane, too. The NPR piece was really good too.

:: sigh ::

The whole family must be beaten up with actual guitars.

It's like the South Park "Guitar Hero" episode come to life. What's next, him bragging that he can play GH acoustically?

Thad approves.

16-year-old home schooled kid likes to fuck off playing Guitar Hero when he isn't being home schooled. Hopes to make a career out of it one day.

Okay. First, I'm not defending what this kid likes to spend all of his spare time doing. He's sixteen. So, yeah, there are far better things a 16-year-old could/should be doing with his time. My initial reaction after reading this was that I'd like to find him, throw him out into the sunlight, and see if he melts. But I'd like to hear more from his tutors about how much better he is doing in his actual studies now that he doesn't have to attend an academy that his parents enrolled him in and not-so-surprisingly where he wasn't exactly the most popular kid amongst the other students.

http://www.newsobserver.com/2766/story/1155589.html

What do other home schooled kids do in their spare time once their courses are completed for the day? This one, unfortunately for the poor parents, likes to play video games when he isn't doing his homework and dream of hitting it big in the...Guitar Hero industry? He's an obsessed, socially retarded gamer, hated the school he was attending, and more than likely his grades were suffering accordingly. So his parents, desperate to do something about it, and who have two other children, one who is an honor student at the same Christian academy Blake dropped out of, struck a deal with him. So if the home schooling is helping him get a better education than he would in the Christian academy they originally enrolled him in, then when his delusional dreams of being a multi-millionaire Guitar Hero champion shockingly don't come to pass, he'll at least have something to fall back on.

I can't get angry at the parents. I feel sorry for them. I'm going to take a guess that they hope he gets out of the gaming eventually and that they will have at least salvaged his education through home schooling where they and the tutors can more closely observe his progress.

When did parents stop using the life sucks get a helmet approach? If your being bullied in school learn to either fight back or deal with it not fall back on some video game delusion while your parents spend a lot of money having you home schooled. This country just scares me sometimes.

I take it your childhood must have really sucked, KidNtheHelmet.

He's a whiny bitch that complained about school enough that his folks let him get a tutor and play games all day. The parents need to grow fucking spines. I bitched all the time about going to school because I wanted to practice Super Mario 3 and compete in tournaments as Fred Savage cheered me on, and my parents told me to shut the fuck up and do my homework. Soon as your homework is done, and grades are fine, do whatever you want in your free time. This just angers me so much, and I rarely get riled up.

What if he had always been home schooled and yet was still the same gaming obsessed goofball described in the article? I'd like to know what his home schooling curriculum consists of. How long does he spend with his tutors on a daily basis compared to his time spent gaming? How are his grades compared to what they were while he was attending North Raleigh Christian Academy?

I'm not really trying to mount a defense for these people. I'm just interested in home schooling vs. traditional schooling and why it's such a factor here when this is basically an article about a weird kid with an obsessive hobby and the effects it may or may not have had on his actual schooling. Was it the gaming that lead to his problems in school or was it personal and social problems that developed in a private school environment that lead to more anti-social behavior and pursuits, subsequently causing disinterest and failing grades?

Or, as you said, he's just a whiny bitch with parents who easily cave. Which could very much be the case.

He certainly isn't going to work out any social issues sitting at home playing plastic guitar by himself. And generally these things don't work themselves out on their own.

Yeah, reading through the article again, I think this is just a case of me not being able to accept what I'm reading. I'm desperately trying to find a more reasonable explanation than these parents just wanted to make it easier for their kid to pursue his dream of being the greatest Guitar Hero player. Then I get to this...

...and I just can't come up with anymore excuses.

Kotaku (I believe it was Kotaku) linked to a few articles about this over the weekend, and there was quite the discussion there. From piecing the articles together, it seems the kid had no interest in regular schooling and complained about the strict curriculum the private school his folks put him in. Then he won some Chik-Fil-A coupons, and gift cards from Gamestop, and some cash (literally) and it added fuel to the fire.

He kept complaining about school, and how he could play Guitar Hero for a living, and I guess threw such a fit his parents caved. I'm sure you can find the Kotaku article if you search there for it.

Oh, and apparently also, he has little interest in doing much of his school work with the home school tutor (no shit?), and his grades are poor there as well. Spineless parents.

Two things: video games inevitably fall in and out of vogue. even if, by the wildest stretch of the imagination, he COULD make a living playing GH, eventually it won't be so popular any more, and no one will sponsor events where he could win prizes. THEN what the fuck is he going to do? Also, would anyone, including his parents, have felt differently if he wanted to quit school to learn how to play a REAL guitar? Odds are probably infinitesimally better he could make some kind of living doing that, for the rest of his life.

I'm glad I'm not this stupid. I've won probably $4,000 worth of shit from Guitar Hero but I have no delusions about pro-gaming.

This^.

I'm all for kids dropping out of school to pursue ignorant and absurd dreams.

I agree with Cordo, if idiots want to quit school and do stupid things, great less competition for everyone else.

Kid could make a lot more money playing online poker.

Perhaps that's his "safety school".

Well this will at least give him some topics to break the ice at the countless low income jobs he will have for the rest of his life.

This is a This American Life episode. Ira, make it happen.

Actually, I think this kid could pull it off. I hear Brett Ratner's casting his next project.