Could Max Prado have had a childhood acting career without homeschooling?

Question

Many child actors use tutors and other methods of homeschool in order to pursue their art. You may not remember Max's latest work as "the cereal kid" on the Wayne Brady Show, two years ago, but however insignificant his career, does he owe it to his freedom to homeschool?

Answer 1

why don't you ask him yourself.

http://answers.yahoo.com/my/profile;_ylt...

Answer 2

Depending on where he lived, he could have.  We moved to the midwest 4 years ago from Southern Cal, and my son was involved in commercial acting.  His "career" was cut short by a near-fatal case of SARS (it affected his immune system and he wasn't able to keep up with the schedule), but before that he had the last-minute auditions and callbacks, as well as agency visits and agent calls to keep up with.  I often had 2 hours notice to have him at some studio in Hollywood or LA.

He went to a private school that allowed him to have a flexible schedule; there were other child actors/entertainers that attended there as well.  The teachers were great about having work ready for the child to complete at home or on the set.  (The little girl who acted in the movie "Phenomenon" was a year ahead of my son there, and she was on set for several months while still enrolled.)  They were also great about communicating with the parents about anything the child might need extra work with, or where the child was doing well.

It wasn't a school for the arts or anything - actually, it was a school for gifted kids.  We loved it, my son was there for three years.  We started homeschooling because we couldn't find anything like it in our new city - but while he loved his time there, he wouldn't trade homeschooling for anything :-)

He's doing a lot better health-wise now, and is actively involved in community theater; he's found that he prefers the stage to the camera.  Homeschooling does allow him (now) to put in hundreds of hours per year preparing for and performing in plays without having to sacrifice his grades or other activities, such as Scouts or sports.  (Plays and Scouts come before sports for him, but that's a choice on his part.)

Good question!

Answer 3

He could probably have still gone to school, at least between projects, and still done as much acting as he has. However, in a Hollywood world where plenty of child actors have tutoring or homeschooling and are socially successful, one has to wonder what went wrong with his homeschooling to create the problems he has today.