San Lumen wrote:https://www.npr.org/2021/01/28/961511395/san-francisco-may-rename-schools-named-after-washington-lincoln-and-others
San Francisco is pushing ahead with a plan to rename dozens of public schools, committing to potentially remove names of public figures such as George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson and U.S. Senator Dianne Feinstein. The board voted 6-1.
Mayor London Breed said she doesn;t think its conversation that should be had right now and thinks it ought to involve the public before a final decisions is made.
The school board passed a resolution in May 2018 to change names if the person "engaged in the subjugation and enslavement of human beings; or who oppressed women, inhibiting societal progress; or whose actions led to genocide; or who otherwise significantly diminished the opportunities of those amongst us to the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."
Among schools the panel recommended be renamed are those named for former President Herbert Hoover, naturalist John Muir, Revolutionary War figure Paul Revere and author Robert Louis Stevenson. Former President James Monroe is also on the list, who is known to have held enslaved people, as did Washington and Jefferson.
I think its an incredibly stupid idea and these people shouldn't be on a school board. If you want to rename something named for Jefferson Davis that's one thing but to change name of something named for Washington, Lincoln and Jefferson who while flawed contributed greatly to the nation is absurd.
You might as well adopt a policy of anything named for anyone from before at least the 1930s has to be changed. We should rename Washington DC and the other state capitals named for Presidents while we are at it. They should have a public forum and they will see how unpopular this plan almost certainly would be.
Your Thoughts NSG?
If the school is a state school and not a true public school (actual public schools are nearly extinct in the US as almost all were transformed in the 20th Century to State Schools while retaining the Public misnomer)), then it needs to be renamed State School (County/Municipal Designation) - (school serial number), for example in California, "State School LA-12345 High School." Team names need to be renamed to the school name only, e.gl. State School 123 Basket Ball Team. Mascots are informal and determined by the team at the time. Problem solved.
For Independent school districts where the parents of the county or municipality actually directly control the hiring and firing of school administration (like a true public school does), and still have them on a short leash, then it is up to the parents and students, never the administrators unless directly given permission by them -- administrators merely administrate the will of the community, not dictate. Charter schools are the closest thing in the US to what public schools used to be when they really were public schools, same social norms as aforementioned. Problem solved.
The school naming issue is systematic of the deeper problem of School administrations that are more interested in schooling as social engineering. They use politically correct virtue signalling; conformation to sociological norms; and play acting actual education in lieu of actual education. Academicians have a responsibility to use schools as a vehicle to formally educate and inculcate the student to maturity and self-motivation, fully prepared to be a free people in a free society who can read, write, and think independently to the best of their ability when matriculated in general and when in major to the best of their ability in said major. The solution is simple, albeit difficult -- get rid of School Administrators that do no directly teach or directly facilitate a teacher to teach.
Corollaries to above afterwards would be to re-brand so-called public schools to the state schools they are/ have become. Re-institute traditional public schools (before the Dewey transformation) that are responsible to the parents and students directly to compete with state schools. An additional help would be to have all educational monies be directed by the parents of each child directly to the school and administrators of their choice as an independent school, especially to immediately fire teachers and administrators who are inept, incompetent, corrupt, or outright evil. We have too many good teachers and principals who are shackled by over-educated idiots who think they are educators. This would help set the teachers free to teach unobstructed by politics.
