Quote:
Originally Posted by Jon_2007
I mean to each his own and im glad your happy with it, but I have got to admit here that I am truly blown away by your positive opinions of Ellenton, Myself and my whole family and friends looked and still look at it as a total dump, I mean I think of San Clemente compared to 301 right through ellenton/palmetto and I laugh
Now that I look back on 3 years of my life spent in the Bradenton/Palmetto/Ellenton I think to myself im lucky to be alive, the amount of crime these 3 cities have combined is absurd.
Ive heard nothing but bads things about MSA myself. The public schools in Manatee have a preety big problem on there hands that they are doing there best to sweep under the rug, And that is there MRSA outbreaks. My sister picked it up from the public school and almost died from it.
MSA is a very liberal school, As so are its students. As a disabled vet you dont mind your kids being exposed to a radical left-wing environment?
Im also curious Mackeyser what neighboorhood in Ellenton did you move to? You could of just moved into the same Neighboorhood I just left lol.
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Well, maybe I'm just lucky? My wife and I travel all around north of the river and haven't met or seen anything crime related. Palmetto, Ellenton, Parrish, it's been all good. Now, there are some really down parts that it makes sense to be aware in, but I've seen folks say that they fear for their lives at the Walmart on 301 at the 41. Which is absurd. I go there with my kids frequently. Sure, I'm a pretty big guy (6'2" 250), but not so much that if someone were bent on criminal activity that they'd look at me and walk away. I'm not exactly Michael Clark Duncan (the big guy from Green Mile, Daredevil and Sin City).
As for MSA, I really like it. I've had extensive talks with the principle, Dr. Jones and I'm so glad that he agrees how important it is that we engage multiple modalities of learning. I mean, if your child is an experiential learner (learns by doing) then lectures won't teach him. Ever. So having an environment that actually fosters learning based on how YOUR child learns is important. Is it totally catered? No. My high functioning autistic son still had to do an APA-style paper even tho his autism makes that REALLY difficult. And had he not turned it in late, he'd have gotten an A.
As for liberal, I dunno if anyone's gonna want to engage in political discussion here, but for the sake of an answer, I'll say this. I'm well read. I've built things no one's built before. I'm usually the smartest guy in the room except for when I was doing IT consulting for Raytheon's Aerospace division (actual rocket scientists and even then, I wasn't last). That's not a brag, it just is what it is. I read. Not just fodder like John Grisham, but actual philosophy, arts and sciences. I read economists. Guys like Adam Smith (his Wealth of Nations should be mandatory reading) and John Maynard Keynes. I always enjoyed the wit and insight of William F. Buckley, Jr. I'm the guy who reads Thomas Aquinas for fun as well as Fritjof Capra's The Tao of Physics. What I mean by all this is that I'm a thoughtful person. I'd rather debate politics or watch Extreme Engineering or learn about the formation of the Catholic church than watch a baseball game (and as a kid, I literally slept with my glove, baseball was everything to me). I'm a devout Christian and was a Republican until this year. But no more. I couldn't take the neoliberal economics which still seeks to privatize everything, even stuff like RAIN like they did in Brazil (meaning poor people were incarcerated for keeping rain barrels because in Brazil the rain actually was OWNED by a corporation. I wish I was joking). I couldn't take the neoconservative war-mongering (and when I agree with Pat Buchanon as much as I have lately, something's just...wrong). I couldn't take the Republican/Libertarian "F$#% the poor" attitude when it was the very "Trickle down" policies that MADE the ranks of the poor expand. Btw, the explanation about how Supply Side Economics that House Republicans are STILL trying to sell is and always was destined to fail is pretty short. I'll gladly post my explanation if anyone's interested. So I went independent.
Liberal isn't anything but a label to me. A "Liberal" education used to be a good thing. Am I worried about a gay student saying "I'm gay". No. Why would I? My child will understand how to handle him/herself in the world. At MSA my kids learn music, art and focuses much more on learning than just passing the FCAT. I learned EID in the US Navy Nuclear Power Program (Explain in Detail). It's the process by which the Navy gets 18 year old kids in under two years to be able to certify on the operation of a nuclear reactor. Traditional education takes upwards of 10 years and even still, the Navy kids go faster and certify faster with better scores. EID means learning as if you're gonna teach it, so you'll have to... Explain in Detail. Every test is an essay test (and in engineering, that's ridiculously hard). MSA comes MUCH closer to at the very least being open to this method of teaching and supports it much more so than any public school to which I've been exposed.
I know and talk with "radical left-wingers" all the time on political forums. I consider many to be my friends even though we differ greatly on many things. And so you know, there are probably less than 1000 truly radical left wingers in this country. That's something that turd Rush Limbaugh, the anti-thinking's man, would say. Diversity of thought is a good thing. And for someone who enjoys thinking, demagogues of any stripe, ideologues and just plain vacuous idiots are beyond not my thing. I would say that labels are bad and improper labels are worse. MSA is a school that embraces the arts and a less than traditional education model. It happens to be a place that "arty" kids feel more comfortable. They are freer to express themselves which seems just so... um... OUT there... to most folks. I'm fine with it. Because you and I both know that even Liberace had a mortgage or a rent payment. And car payments. And bills. All of which put us in the same boat for the most part. And the radicals, both left and right wing, have something in common. Daily life. Wake up, eat breakfast, get dressed, go to work, come home, get dinner quick so the kids can get to bed, get ready for tomorrow... and so it goes. You'd be AMAZED how similar the lives of people are. Same with schools. MSA may be different, but it's not SO different.
If there were a class on bomb-making, I might agree with that characterization, but alas, it's just a school where kids learn that is less than traditional. And considering how bereft of value most "traditional" education is right now, I hardly think that's a bad thing.
Anyway, that's a whole lot more than you were likely expecting, but there you have it.
I've lived in million-dollar homes. I've been personable with some of the most famous people in Hollywood. One of the most famous producers in Hollywood sent me a muffin basket when I wouldn't allow her to pay me for some work I did for her. Best dang muffins I've EVER had, btw. They were so good, I still remember the taste of the poppy seed muffin. /sigh. Been there, done that.
I don't want that anymore (well, other than the muffins. I could definitely go for more muffins). I like the decent-sized lake behind my house in Covered Bridge Estates. I like the same crane who comes to my back door almost every day to check on us. I like the neighborhood kids and the folks at Bay Pines VA.
FOR ME, everything here is great. I don't have much, don't need much and what I do want and need is here for me in plenty.
Edited for grammar and typographical errors.
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