The “Water Cooler” is a feature on Claycord.com where we ask you a question or provide a topic, and you talk about it.
The “Water Cooler” will be up Monday-Friday at noon.
Today’s question:
The San Francisco Unified School District voted Tuesday to rename 44 schools, including schools named after Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, John Muir and Dianne Feinstein.
They are seeking to change the names of schools that are named after:
- Anyone directly involved in the colonization of people
- Slave owners or participants in enslavement
- Perpetuators of genocide or slavery
- Those who exploit workers/people
- Those who directly oppressed or abused women, children, queer or transgender people
- Those connected to any human rights or environmental abuses
- Those who are known racists and/or white supremacists and/or espoused racist beliefs
QUESTION: Should schools just be assigned numbers, and not names, like they do in New York City, or do you think they should be named after people?
Talk about it….
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After reading the list of who not name schools for, that leaves plain numbers and letters. In which case they will argue over which to use, numbers or letters. After deciding that, they will then argue over what order to use them in. May I suggest they start with P, P1, etc. for all preschools?
LMFAO! Lets just erase history!
This is scary! Remember the old adage: “those who forget history are bound to repeat it.”
This can also hurt Kamala Harris’s chances of having something named after her, as there some slavery on her grandfather’s side. (Her mother was Indian/indian her father was English / Jamaican)
Ugh! I understand the reasons that some people might want to change the names of schools, but in most cases the people for whom schools are named are LONG GONE and I, for one, have a problem with unearthing ancient history like, “they were involved in the slave trade,” or “they had illegitimate children,” or whatever! These people were, nonetheless, important to the history and growth of our country, however distasteful their actions might now be viewed. But, if you must rename schools, I personally do not care for P.S. 1233, etc. I attended schools in southern California – Highland Elementary, Cowan Avenue Elementary, Orville Wright Jr High and Westchester High School, and with the exception of OWJR they are all named for locations; either street locations or city names. Personally, I like this method. I’ve also seen (locally) Silverwood Elementary, named for the sub-division in which it resides; Ayres Elementary, named for the street it’s on; Concord High, Mt. Diablo High, all perfectly named after their locales or prominent location features. Hopefully San Francisco will go in this direction in renaming their schools.
…… what Mimi said!
I find “Mt. Diablo” offensive.
Let’s start off by saying I am so tired of changing names because some group of people say they are racist.Let’s rewrite history to satisfy them (bull s..t ).They will never be happy until all the names are changed to what they want the hell with history.So yes change buildings,streets, schools and any other public land marks to numbers.Then let’s see what they pick on next.I’m surprised we haven’t changed the name of the White House.
I take offense to Cracker Barrel. As a white man cracker is an offensive term. 😂
With all those restrictions, might just name the schools by their address.
Nope, can’t do that either, because of the street names would be offensive too. i.e Washington, Lincoln ,Jefferson et al
But maybe we can rename those with numbers and letters only
Well, good luck. I can’t come up with anything that wouldn’t offend anyone.
This is what happens when you let Joe’s Kids get in charge. I mean how do you respond to something that is just plain stupid? Does the mayor or the governor have an opinion they care to put out there? Sometime soon.
Of course. Because in the face of a global pandemic this is the most important thing to work on. Glad to see tax dollars so well spent. Citizens of SF should feel great about this.
Also, why was Dianne Feinstein cancelled?
According to this article, “former San Francisco mayor Feinstein was listed after reportedly reinstating Confederate flags by City Hall in the ’80s”
https://www.sfgate.com/education/article/San-Francisco-to-rename-44-schools-washington-15901689.php
Well, that lets out the naming of anything after Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. He cheated on his wife and in the process alienated the affection of his children, a common and severe form of child abuse.
GittyUp, I hope you are saying that because MLK cheated on his wife he not a great man who did more for civil rights in the sixties than anybody, he was a true leader not only of African American’s, but for the whole country.
I
@Hanne
Did you read the naming guidelines?
It doesn’t matter how much and what kind of good a person has done. It doesn’t matter whether on the balance of things they’ve done a lot more good than bad. It doesn’t matter that their views were average – or even progressive and enlightened – at the time when they lived.
What matters is whether they’ve done anything that could be considered offensive by the self-elected SF moral police.
So Gittyup is absolutely correct – MLK should join the club of those banned from the SF school naming list. And he would be in a very good company too – nothing to be ashamed of.
Let them rename all they want, I’ve never believed objects should be named after people, living or dead.
Kirkwood,
Why not?
Any chance we can rename one “Cowellian”?
Sure! I do meet all of the requirements, at least as they’re written today. It would be my luck to have a school named after me, and then they’d add a prohibition against going to sea on a submarine named after someone who wasn’t woke enough.
No numbers for schools! Names can be fine as long as they aren’t names of questionable people. Perhaps the schools can be named in relation to their location such as Mid-Town or West Side. For what it’s worth my high school is amongst those to have the name changed.
So you think Washington and Lincoln are questionable people? What has happened to our country?
I think in Alaska they had names of schools by their location, north, south, east and west.
Don’t you think these clowns would have more important things to do
Hope they don’t name one after George Floyd, he was convicted of robbery several times.
108RS
Based on their ridiculous guidelines for renaming the schools, what will happen next? Will the Board of Supervisors jump on board and want to start renaming some of the streets in the city? How about renaming the city and county while they’re at it? San Francisco is named after Saint Francis of Assisi, who was the founder of the Franciscan Order, and Junipero Serra was a Franciscan.
Maybe they should go back to San Francisco’s original name which was Yerba Buena, which means good herb. It seems fitting because I think those in charge have been smoking way too much of the good herb.
It’s a dirty rotten shame what they are doing to a once beautiful city with so much history. I graduated from Mission High School, and so did my parents. I also attended Ulloa Elementary School.
How does anybody in their right mind vote for a liberal, I’ll never know. Whoever said, “liberalism is a mental disorder” had it right.
Hey, Dawg: how about the re-naming of Army Street to Cesar Chavez Way??
In mtz they’ve already renamed our schools… they are now called “ the dining room table “ and/ or “ the bedroom “
And a once great city slides farther into the woke sewer. I suppose among the new names will be Fidel Castro High, Hugo Chavez Middle School, Putin Middle School, Bin Laden Elementary…. Wait until the pendulum swings the other way and they rename them Ronald Reagan High, Donald Trump High, Rush Limbaugh High, Ted Cruz High, Mike Pence High……..
This is just plain stupid. But then these are liberals and they are incapable of rational thought.
Wow … They have their priorities straight, NOT.
Wow, they cannot agree on how to safely open schools but they can decide that school names are racist. So what unracist name will you come up with? Cause if you choose numbers, 13 is unlucky … and for those at school #1, are they better than those at school #2 … and how do you choose which school to be #1 ..
I am guessing that each school has many, many items of signage for the current school names. is there a dollar amount figure to change all of these for 44 schools? my guess is that would be hundreds of thousands or more. I guess we don’t need any computers, teachers, or improvements. just use all the available money on signs. great.
That’s what I was thinking about, it’s going to cost a lot to make all the changes.
That estimate is available in some of the articles written about this sham. I don’t remember exactly, but the cost estimate for changing gymnasium floors, uniforms, signage, etc reaches into the millions.
Maybe those that want to change the names should be required to come up with the cash first? They just don’t know the country is broke.
As schools struggle with tight budgets they decide this is where the money needs to be spent instead of teaching history they want to erase it. People wake up. This is stupid and you keep voting for this crap year after year
This. 100%
And now I’m venting: Also, why are they wasting their time on this? Aren’t there other things more pertinent? Like, I don’t know, our children’s education? FFS.
More liberal , communist insanity . I for one will not be going to San Francisco any time in the future . I won’t spend another dime of my hard earned money to support that cra$ .If you don’t support this canceling of our history, then why would you go there and spend your money to support those ideas ?
Does that mean Franklin D. Roosevelt school will be renamed? He did intern the Japanese during WW 2.
Some new SF school names:
Poopie Sidewalks Elementary
Needle Exchange High School
Black Panther Murderers Middle School
Lame Duck DA School for the Gifted
Urine Stained Business Entry Middle School
Safe Injection Site High School
Tents Under Freeway Prepatory School
What about:
1) Randomly choosing school names like the drug companies choose names for their products? (“Why, yes. I graduated from Provaset High School in 1985.”)
2) Allowing corporate sponsorship? (“Why, yes. I graduated from Signal Enterprises LLC High School in 1985.”)
3) Naming schools based on their geographic coordinates? (“Why, yes. I graduated from 37°27’N 122°10’W High School in 1985.”)
4) Naming schools after children who died before the age of 2? (I know, that’s morbid, but it meets all of the SF School Board’s “Guiding Principles.”)
Nobody who cares about their children wants to raise them in an unsavory city like San Francisco. Therefore several of these schools will have no need to reopen.
A group they hate that’s certainly on their list but they are afraid to document:
Any school named after a figurehead of religious faith. That’s next.
At one time California boasted some of the best School Districts in America, now it’s at, or near, the bottom.
This is a prime reason why.
That was many moons ago! California is a mess!
Why don’t we stop beating around the bush, and admit that America is lost, and she’s not coming back. Our forefathers warned us of these times in our constitution, yet we sat by and watched it happen. The enemy did just what they said they would, infiltrate our country from within without firing a single shot.
Wasn’t it Stalin that said “give me one year of college, and in ten years I will have the country”? Can’t remember the exact quote.
Here are a few names ideas:
Snowflake Elementary
Woke Middle School
Indoctrination High
Priorities, priorities! Forget about kids needing an education, or any of that mumbo jumbo. Lets hire an outside consultant to charge 6.7 mil to come up with (Im guessing here) George Floyd High School East, George Floyd High School West, George Floyd Elementary North Campus, George Floyd STEM campus, etc etc etc. Yes, lets name schools after people like George Floyd. Turd. Yes, he was a turd. Such ridiculousness.. the rest of California is pretty close behind in this garbage, as we all know.
If they would change these names can you imagine what subjects they are teaching.
Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate — we can not consecrate — we can not hallow — this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us — that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion — that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain — that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom — and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.
J. – I was thinking about the Gettysburg Address yesterday. I wonder if this will be taught in the future, among other things, we had to learn and recite as a class.
Why would they rename Alamo, except to spell it as Álamo. This is a poplar tree. An Alameda is a street lined with such trees, but this term may have expanded to include more trees. Do they have a problem with trees? If it is about the Texas rebellion, don’t those fools remember that there were two other parts of México in rebellion, Rio Grande and Yúcatan, that also took up arms against the government of the tyrant Antonio López de Santa Anna, Mexico’s worst leader. Save the álamos!
Let he/she who is without sin cast the first name …
what else would they do?
something to help the kids? no
something to help the parents? no
something to further the dems narrative? yes
something to keep race in the public eye? yes
something to make trouble? yes
something that hurts all Americans?
These people in the SFUSD are seriously ill. Tragic how this kind of thinking has been instilled. Marx is beaming.
Marx wouldn’t care… he was into more important things.
@Susan
Indeed…
Anybody even remotely familiar with what Marx really wrote know that he would blast the current woke BS as a distraction invented by bourgeoisie to divide the proletariat and weaken their fight against capitalist oppression.
And he would be livid at claims of the proponents of so-called “critical race theory” that it is an extension of Marxism. “Whiteness as property”? If working men have no country, they have no race either.
So George is considered the father of our country, and its first president. Not to mention a successful general against the red coats (oops, is that a racial slur). But his name will be banished from public places because he owned slaves (which was acceptable back then). To follow these ‘educators’ lead, I should put more weight on my kid’s negative acts than his accomplishments. See how awful that sounds, education board.
What difference does it make? Naming unused buildings is kind of silly, isn’t it?
Of course, SF is stupid. Why don’t they lease naming rights to companies and at least get some money out of it.
AD
from above post
Tragic how this kind of thinking has been instilled.
indeed
erasing the past of many to fit a narrative of few
i do believe that the past is upon us
as we the many are saddened and provoked by the few
spouting racism
at anything that cant defend itself
go figure
since when are riots and crime and anti american extremism the best we can do
since when does a single party dictate to the whole country
oh yeah china and russia and north korea
hmmmm
so when does the book burning start and the witch trials and the trains pull in to take people to the showers
With the exodus from SF, might as well close half of these schools while they are at it and save a few thousand dollars on signage. SF has a deficit of about 43% in revenue because so many residents are fleeing. Wasteful and disgusting to continue with this nonsense.
Many of the stars and planets are named after Greek and Roman gods. The myths these gods came from show them to be very violent and incestuous beings.
Why not change them, I say one will be Kim Kardashian High School and how about Colin Kaepernick High School. If that ever happenned it would not surprize me at all. Our nation is circling the drain.
The USofA as we real citizens know went into the toilet when Biden and Kamala Harris were sworn in. Along the same lines is Pelosi, Swalwell, DeSaulmier, Barbara Lee, etc.
Would rather have, and was hoping for, a question about storm damage across Claycord. Better than a question about SF. My 2 cents.
I AM A turtle!
Lovelace are you a turtle? I hope you know the answer and your obligation.
That is a very stupid thing to do. Historical names are very important.
From what i’ve been hearing about the “exodus” from California, there may not be any need for many of these schools.when they finally do reopen.
School? What is a school? Oh, you mean that place where kids used to go to learn?
I am not surprised. Marxists wish to eradicate history and rewrite it to suit their needs. European Americans are being recast as the people who sabotaged America, rather than the people who built it, day by day, year by year, through sweat and blood and tears. We live in sad times.
When you erase George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, perhaps SF, perhaps California, are truly lost.
Dear Mayor and Claycord contributors,
Thank you for posting the information and expressing your opinions about the issue of renaming schools in San Francisco. I disagree with the school board’s decision to change the names of schools that would cost taxpayers thousands of dollars for each school and their reason for making these changes. I went to George Washington High School and have a personal interest and concern about the future of our country.
John Rothmann hosted a show tonight on KGO 860 about the renaming of SF schools. Lope Yap, Jr. discussed the impractical side of the school board’s decision and callers voiced concerns. The radio show should be available when the website is updated: https://www.kgoradio.com/johnrothmann/
THE SFUSD HAS VOTED (6-1) TO CHANGE 44 SF SCHOOL NAMES –
FINAL SFUSD SCHOOL NAME DECISIONS APRIL 19, 2021.
Below are the SF school board member’s emails if you would like to express your opinion:
Board President: GabrielaLopez@sfusd.edu
Board Vice President: AlisonMCollins@sfusd.edu
Commissioner: MattAlexander@sfusd.edu
Commissioner: kevineboggess@sfusd.edu
Commissioner: JennyLam@sfusd.edu
Commissioner: FaauugaMoliga@sfusd.edu
Commissioner: MarkSanchez@sfusd.edu
Thank you,
HV
What happens if schools would be named after their mascots?
For instance, in Concord we could have “Minutemen High School”, “Angry Eagle High School”, drat…. don’t know Mt. Diablo High’s mascot. What are some others in the Claycord area?
@Antler….MDHS mascot is “Danny the Devil”, not sure that would fit with your new narrative.
When I went to Mt. Diablo High Sshool (early fifties) the mascot was “Danny Devil”. The real identity of “Danny” was revealed at the end of the school year.
The shortened name of MDHS was “Diablo High”, the term used today is “Mount” which makes no sense to me.
got a chuckle out of that, nytemuvr.
However, I consulted with a few of my former competition piano students who used to attend Mt. Diablo High. Though “Danny the Devil” is the school’s mascot, the school motto is
“Victory with Honor”.
Sooooo….. Victory High School
Antler – You win the memory gig, I had forgotten about “Victory with honor”.
If you’re referring to CVCHS, they’re the Ugly Eagles, not Angry.
Kirkwood, I didn’t know that. Sounds odd and awkward. It didn’t make sense to me either, until I remembered a good while ago when some local group (maybe it was a church?) thought our mountain needed a different name, because of “diablo” meaning “devil” in Spanish.
Kirkwood, thanks, but I had no memory of it whatsoever. Surely had fun talking with some of my former students, though!
As proof of my jittery memory prowess, see Rollo Tomasi’s comment that CCVHS has “Ugly Eagle” (rather than my memory bank’s “The Angry Eagles”) as its mascot.
Thanks, Rollo.
No that won’t fly, remember Columbus did not past muster, and there was some question about Father Juniper Serra if I remember correctly.
I’m sure there are historic figures who do not deserve a statue or a building named after them. However, I think we have to we very careful how much we want to erase history. Certainly neither Washington or Lincoln and others should not be under consideration for name change. We cannot judge people that lived many generations ago, by todays standard, times change and people evolve. Also no one is perfect. and these men and presidents need to be judge by what the accomplished altogether, and also how the evolved. I think the real question should be, were they still living today how would their view on slavery and race be.
After WWII and the Holocaust the Jews said “Never again” and they felt the only way to prevent that was to “Never forget”, which meant leaving some concentrations camps as a horrible reminder, and teach as much as possible about the Holocaust. I visited the Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem, very moving, very somber, certainly made a huge impression on me even though I was only 20 years old. If we erase history we are likely to repeat it.
It goes without saying that there should not be, nor are there any schools or buildings name after Hitler.
We have now reached the level of “woke” where Dianne Feinstein gets cancelled.
Hold onto your history books, and fasten your seat belts…..
Bob, the senator announced awhile back that she would not seek re-election.
I don’t care to which political party you belong, this woman has served faithfully and well to represent her electorate’s best interests. I give her my thanks and hope her remaining time on Earth will be happy.
widely predicted when the left stepped up their insanity: they will eat their own
What is next? If they don’t like your name, or if you name your son George or Abraham, will they force you to change it? What if those are family names and you are trying to honor and remember a grandparent?
Really – if we don’t have schools named after people we are erasing history?
So – we better start naming schools after everyone we want to be remembered – otherwise, we will have no way to keep our history – LOL
Hey – about we put up a large plaque and have an exhibit at the school explaining who the person was and what they did?
Without that – what exactly does anyone know about these people?
Just a reminder that the English Alphabet is based on the Latin Alphabet. Latin countries have been involved with the suppression of indigenous people. Our numeric system is based on Hindu-Arabic numbers. Both the cultures have episodes of oppression and racism in their history as well. We probably just need to use pictures of the location. Of course the inventor of the photograph was a French man in the late 18th century. They had slavery there at the time and he didn’t make them stop… sooooooo.
Such a fine, instructive post, Amateur Teacher.
Keep ‘em coming, please!
A school board decision. A decision so flawed, not even the democratic mayor of the same city can support it.
And why rename schools that kids are not even attending?! The school board sounds like a bunch of clowns!
How much taxpayer money will be spent on this ridiculous waste of time?
Time for another big shake to settle the lunatics down.
Flatten the insanity!
October 1989 is already forgotten.
Our forefathers were brilliant. To cancel out their accomplishments because of personal imperfections is the epidomy of cancel culture. Nothing is perfect. To insist on this is to guarantee failure.
Additionally, San Francisco street names such as Francisco, Washington, Lincoln, etc. need to be changed ASAP.
Additionally, names that need changing are the state of Washington and Washington D.C., along with the renaming/removal of the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial.
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Animalover: Think of all the children that must be renamed now. I don’t think even MLK can withstand their scrutiny.
Not to mention the damage done to the psyche of children that are forced to live on streets with such vile names. Imagine the embarrassment of having mail arrive at their homes with addresses like ### Washington Street or ### Jefferson Street. Thousands of children live in the state of Washington, through no fault of their own. Oh the stigma.
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To erase history is to repeat it.
Cancel culture is to make everyone appear the same, as if they were forced to wear masks.
Trying to find someone to name a School after who has not done something wrong or our of favor in their past would be impossible. I think we need to look at the greater good of the person has done.
I think we go a little overboard on being PC and forget that the past needs to be learned, remembered, and not repeated.
Patricia Boland of course you are correct, no one is a Saint. Not even me. Cancel culture is just another losing idea of progressives, or the woke, or the liberals. I don’t know what to call them anymore.
all well said, may i add:
those who don’t learn from the past are doomed to repeat it
God bless
No numbers, keep the names. My husband and the ones here I’ll name all graduated from George Washington High School. Stephen Beltrano, Ex Officer/ Retire Treasure Dept Government/ Mike Biel Retired Commander SF PD / Ed Ruppenstein Retired Sheriffs SF City and County Sheriff’s Dept. Bill Davis, Retired SF Fire Dept. Bob Winslow retired SF Fire Dept/Monique Etecheverry, Paul Koski, John Foote and so many more. Point is. Let it alone. This particular school was theirs. Wonder what Steve would say now.
Johnny Mathis graduated from George Washington High School and was a star athlete.
Every single one of those named above are my close personal friends.