“We have to decide what our civic values are,” Professor Greene said by phone from the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, where he is chairman of the Department of Education Reform. “To decide what they are, we have to talk about them, and it’s inevitable that people will disagree about what those values are or should be.”
“If we try to avoid that conflict, we are avoiding deliberating about what values we wish to convey,” he said. As a result, “we may fail to teach any desirable values at all.”...
After examining records in seven states — New Jersey being the closest to New York — the professor found that schools are increasingly being named not for people but rather for animals, lakes, hills and other features of nature. The trend in those states is so pronounced that Professor Greene is confident it is a nationwide phenomenon.
Historical figures have taken it on the chin, especially American presidents. ...Of course, one could say that some presidents richly earn the low regard in which they are held. But Professor Greene’s larger point is that cities express communal values by naming schools, bridges or roads after people. When they settle on a name like Owl Creek, which was what Jefferson Elementary School in Fayetteville morphed into last year, they are essentially saying nothing.
Local officials often find it safer to stick with mesas and cactuses. That way, they avert potentially messy conflicts...But it is a cop-out, he suggests.
“Even naming schools after seriously flawed people can be instructional because we at least learn about those failings,” ...“In general, we prefer to honor people who are worthy of emulation,” he said. “But even if we learn of unsavory aspects of people’s lives, we can also learn from their mistakes.” ...
Fair enough. Still, one can understand why some cities find comfort in a natural object like a mesa. Unlike many politicians and other public figures, mesas are mostly on the level.
Hard to imagine tis book review might have any local relevance to Madison, WI.
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