Guitar Hero? Really?

There once was a time when parents who made the decision to home school their children did so because they wanted to provide a more tailored education to their child, or they were concerned that their child was not being challenged enough at school.

There once was a time when kids were home schooled because at young age they excelled at a particular sport and decided to focus on the dream of being a future Olympian, or they wanted to purse an acting career and - gasp! - they actually made it in Hollywood and had to have a tutor.

Well, move over Shawn Johnson and Dakota Fanning, you aren't so special anymore. It now seems there are other reasons to remove your child from school other than just sports, acting ability, or some academic gift that makes you far superior to the other kids in your class memorizing math flash cards and practicing their cursive handwriting.

The new gift? Guitar Hero (I swear you cannot make this stuff up).

A Raleigh family of five has one less child in school because their child has decided his future is in competitive video gaming, specifically Guitar Hero. The parents of 16 year old Blake Peebles bowed to his pleas to be taken out of the private Christian school he had been attending so that he could devote more time to playing - and apparently mastering - Guitar Hero.

Blake is the middle child of Mike and Hunter Peebles. Tucker is 18, an honor-roll student who plays football for North Raleigh Christian Academy. Caramy is 13, a dancer with a congenital disorder that causes developmental disabilities. Mike and Hunter do not believe in one-size-fits-all parenting. That is not to say that it was an easy decision for them to let Blake leave school last September. They would have preferred that he stay in high school with his brother. But he bugged them until they let him quit.

"We couldn't take the complaining anymore," says Hunter. "He always told me that he thought school was a waste of time."

You couldn't take the complaining anymore? Really? I mean, I could maybe understand if the complaining was something like, "Come on, Mom! All I want to do is volunteer for the Peace Corps. If you won't let me do that, at least let me drop out of school to devote my entire life's passion and resources to the homeless."

But Guitar Hero? Really? Someone give Amy Polar and Seth Myers a call because I have the perfect "Really" segment for the next Weekend Update on SNL.

Apparently Blake was not too thrilled to be a school (I know, quite the shocker. A 16 year old boy doesn't want to be at school? You're kidding me). And apparently Blake excels at Guitar Hero. Fast forward to this year and you have yourself a young man being tutored at home (an all expenses paid schooling by mom and dad of course) and pursing a career as a competitive gamer. In fact, he and his Dad traveled to California this month (they might even be there now!) so Blake could compete at the World Cyber Games. Wow. That is quite the field trip. The most exotic field trip I ever went on was in third grade to the RJ Reynolds Tobacco factory in Winston-Salem. They actually showed us how cigarettes were made! (That is totally another post for another time).

To date, Blake has raked in about $1,000 in prize winnings for his talent. He even won a year's supply of Chick-fil-a chicken sandwiches during a tournament. Now what teenager wouldn't give up school for that!

I wonder if chicken sandwiches were in Mom and Dad's vision of greatness for Blake when they said yes to Guitar Hero and no to schooling. Maybe. I just wonder what they are going to do when young Blake starts complaining about eating too many chicken sandwiches...