I know the news has a tendency to report one side of a story (contrary to popular belief, this has less to do with political affiliation and more to do with how badly Stan the Sports Guy wants to nip off to Hooters). I know that a complete education needs to be more than sitting at a desk until a bell rings and we jump like Pavlov's pups.
But I can't find one scrap of redemption in a story about a 16-year-old quitting school to become a "Professional Guitar Hero player."
Wait. Stop. Let's go over that again, class.
Guitar Hero. Professional.
I'm not one of those self-appointed musical crusaders who tries to convert Guitar Hero players to a Fender. Getting drunk and banging on a Fisher-Price toy to make noise is supposed to be about having fun. It doesn't prepare you to be a real guitar player any more than playing Madden prepares you for getting squashed under Team Gorilla.
Hence why letting a kid drop out of school to play Guitar Hero at a pub is such a tragic comedy. I know many rock and punk revolutionaries dropped out of school to embrace the guitar. I know that the great bluesmen who forged music as we know it today didn't have the benefit of anything close to an adequate education. Unfortunately, the vast majority of kids who drop out to smoke weed, plunk guitar strings and starve don't make it anywhere close to fame. What's going to happen to a kid who drops out to play a fake video game guitar? Will he develop a cotton floss habit that will eventually destroy him?
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