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Comment by richcollins | Hacker News Reader

I'd rather have my kids grow up in a place where they learn that anything is possible than a place where I can "get more house".

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what makes you think places outside of California are teaching kids the opposite?

You generally learn what is possible by what happens around you. When I lived in Florida what was around me was strip clubs, cash for gold and personal injury ads.

Now I the things that I see around me change the entire world for the better. When I travel thousands of miles away I see people using things made by people that I personally know. This is powerful and I'm glad that my kids are growing up someplace where the expectation is to change the world, not become a stripper.

His point was that in the Bible Belt there are probably other (religious) priorities when it comes to curriculum.

Some on HN have the idea that southern/semi-southern states are theocratic wastelands.

I know that they are first hand. I grew up there.

I could counter with my own anecdata, but it wouldn't be useful. It sounds like you had a bad experience in one state and extrapolated it to the entire region.

I spent 25 of my first 30 years in Tampa, Florida and 5 in Atlanta at Georgia Tech. There are things that I love about Tampa but I wouldn't in any way call it inspiring. I wouldn't call anyplace in the south inspiring compared to the SF Bay Area.

So your perspective is one university in Georgia and one city in Florida. Come out to Athens if you ever end up in Georgia again and you'll see inspiration. You might have heard of a few bands that started there.

Or check out a PINES library (http://www.georgialibraries.org/public/pines.php), which is part of a very inspiring statewide project that spawned an open source library system (http://www.evergreen-ils.org/) used all over the world.

I'm not saying that you can't find inspiration there. I'm saying it isn't pervasive. It isn't woven into the culture. You can't avoid it here, it's palpable. As soon as you get down it lifts you back up.

But you did say that. You're saying something very different now. This is good.

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