A study of public school names in 7 states has found that it is increasingly rare for schools to be named for a president or other person, and much more common to choose a natural feature or an animal. The researchers recommend further examination of how school names contribute to public education’s civic mission.
One startling finding: Of the 3,000 public schools in Florida, 5 honor George Washington, while 11 emulate manatees. Yes, the founding father of our country has been humbled by the sea cow. (Check out Manatee High School. You’d think their mascot would be a no-brainer, but they’re the Manatee Hurricanes. Brilliant.)
A Washington Post article lists the names of Northern Virginian schools that have opened in the past decade, including Colonial Forge, Forest Park, Mountain View, Riverbend, and Stone Bridge. One citizen committee considered honoring Barbara Bush or former governor Mills E. Godwin, but decided on Forest Park because “Next to the park. Not offending anyone. Not controversial.”
Of course “Nixon Grade School” is not an appropriate moniker for anything besides a punk band, and “Clinton High School” insinuates the punch line of a dirty joke, but if all of our public figures are that polemic, then maybe school names that sound suspiciously like residential communities are indicative of a larger problem. Is the fabric of our society so porous… are our values and morals so scattered… are we so busy worshipping Paris Hilton that we cannot agree on our children’s heroes and role models?
Perhaps branding plays a large part in the trend. Pretty soon public schools will tap into their latent marketing muscle to sound as uncontroversial and bland as possible: Sunny Schoolhouse. Bright Acerage. Ritalin Academy. Brainy Pastures. The Benign School.
Me, I went to Methacton High School in the eponymous school district. Yep, just a good, old-fashioned Indian public school name that has long ceased to look or sound strange to me. Supposedly, “Methacton” is a Lenape word that means “evil hill,” which succintly sums up the public school experience for me. In college, a friend didn’t believe that my school was called Methacton. “It sounds like a designer drug,” he said. “I think I took some methacton last night.”
