Rename Schools?

[lilcountriegal]

Bored at work and browsing, I came across this article.

This is just simply ridiculous....

(AP) - A substitute school teacher in Hampton has started a petition to change the names of Robert E. Lee Elementary and Jefferson Davis Middle schools.

Erenestine Harrison says it's inappropriate and psychologically damaging to send a predominantly black student population into buildings named after Confederate leaders. She says that 94 percent of students at Lee Elementary and 66 percent at Davis Middle School are black.

Harrison says she's not trying to "erase the South of Lee and Davis." But she says they should be left "on the statues and battlefields."

Harrison says she wants the schools to bear names of people she considers better role models for children.

Davis Middle School principal David Leech says the psychological damage argument doesn't wash for him, and he would like to see it proved.

Harrison hopes to collect two thousand signatures before presenting the petition to the Hampton School Board.



Link to the article

 

[jimnyc]

Sure, and they should rename the high school I attended (John F. Kennedy). Next they should rename the hundreds of thousands of streets created to commemorate our history. After that, start on all the libraries.

Someone will always not agree with our naming conventions. I guess everything should be named A, B or C... (or maybe 1, 2 & 3...)

I'll say it for the 50th time, "give them an inch..."

 

[lilcountriegal]

The whole thing is just getting simply out of control. It reminds me of the whole "push for ebonics to be taught in school" issue. You would think that sooner or later people would just sit back and worry more about what type of education their children are receiving instead of worrying about the name of the building they are receiving that education IN.

Maybe she'll be quieted down a bit if they let the school name be changed to "OJ Simpson High".

*sigh*

 

[5stringJeff]

Originally posted by jimnyc
Sure, and they should rename the high school I attended (John F. Kennedy). Next they should rename the hundreds of thousands of streets created to commemorate our history. After that, start on all the libraries.

Someone will always not agree with our naming conventions. I guess everything should be named A, B or C... (or maybe 1, 2 & 3...)

I'll say it for the 50th time, "give them an inch..."

You say that... the streets in Tacoma, WA, actually are A St., B St., C St., etc., up to M. Then they start using trees, presidents, etc. A few years, back, though, they renamed K St. to Martin Luther King St.

 

[SLClemens]

Originally posted by gop_jeff
You say that... the streets in Tacoma, WA, actually are A St., B St., C St., etc., up to M. Then they start using trees, presidents, etc. A few years, back, though, they renamed K St. to Martin Luther King St.

I think that's a cool idea, but as for efacing our history... I have to say I agree with Jim on this one. Washington and Jefferson were slave owners - should we rename everthing called "Washington" or "jefferson"? I might suggest finding some more original names for future schools / streets / institutions, but this just seems like a waste of time.

 

[Moi]

Originally posted by lilcountriegal
Bored at work and browsing, I came across this article.

This is just simply ridiculous....

(AP) - A substitute school teacher in Hampton has started a petition to change the names of Robert E. Lee Elementary and Jefferson Davis Middle schools.

Erenestine Harrison says it's inappropriate and psychologically damaging to send a predominantly black student population into buildings named after Confederate leaders. She says that 94 percent of students at Lee Elementary and 66 percent at Davis Middle School are black.

Harrison says she's not trying to "erase the South of Lee and Davis." But she says they should be left "on the statues and battlefields."

Harrison says she wants the schools to bear names of people she considers better role models for children.

Davis Middle School principal David Leech says the psychological damage argument doesn't wash for him, and he would like to see it proved.

Harrison hopes to collect two thousand signatures before presenting the petition to the Hampton School Board.



Link to the article

Oh, a better role model such as JFK and Bill Clinton whose womanizing was so legendary they might as well name a school "Playboy High". Or how about each and every president who made treaties with native americans and then renegged....perhaps we should strip their names from the annals of history?

This issue is so absurd, but the idiot will probably get her wish. In Virginia there was a high school called Stonewall Jackson High school but it's no longer called that. Then there is Fairfax High school whose mascot was "Johnny Reb"...no longer that either!

Why stop there? Let's stop celebrating President's Day and take all the famous people off the money...they've certainly offended someone's sensibilities at some point.

 

[Dan]

There's actually a school near where I went to high school (Orangeburg, SC) called Jefferson Davis. I see nothing wrong with that, but I will say this: my younger nephew went to a tiny little elementary school in O'burg, and they had the kids there pledging the Confederate flag. He learned the pledge like this: "I pledge allegiance to the flag of the Confederate states of America." Now, naming a school after major leaders in american history is one thing, but isn't it a little silly to be pledging to a flag representing a country that hasn't existed in over a hundred years? And isn't it sorta disrespectful to pledge your allegiance to a country that tried to break away from America? What're everyone's thoughts on this, I'm curious to know.

On a slightly off-topic note, I have found in my experience that there is more of a regional prejudice in the south than in the north. Down here, there are people who will immediately dislike me, just because I'm from the north. I never really found that to be the case up north, sure they'd probably make fun of you if you had a strong southern accent, but they wouldn't immediately dislike you. Well, obviously there's probably some A-holes that would, but basically what i'm trying to say is there's more a-holes like that down here, I guess.

 

[5stringJeff]

Dan,

Out here, I have found that anyone with a Southern accent is almost immediately stereotyped as stupid. A co-worker of mine from Tennessee agreed.

 

[Dan]

Yeah, but most of the time, they're probably not immediately regarded as a piece of sh*t because of where they're from, right?

 

[Dan]

I should note that I'm not making a broad generalization, just something that I've found to be more common in the south than the north.

 

[Moi]

Northerners think southerners are uneducated, beer swilling fatsos. And southerners think northers are rich, rude snobs.

I can honestly say that I've lived in the south and the north and found that every stereotype in My Cousin Vinny was dead on!

Hee Hee

 

[Dan]

Yeah, you're probably right.

Still, it wasn't cool of them to think of me as a rich, rude snob. I mean, I'm not rich at all.