When Should School Names Get Canceled?

There are basically two categories of names that tend to be the ones that people want to be removed from schools. The first, is the name of confederate leaders, like Stonewall Jackson, Robert E. Lee, Jefferson Davis, and the other category is much more general with figures that have some kind of problematic past. For example, other names on the school name chopping block include former slave owners like Thomas Jefferson and George Washington, people associated with the KKK, like Nathan Bedford Forrest, eugenicists like Lewis Madison Terman, segregationists like Woodrow Wilson-- to name a few.

**What are the main arguments for renaming schools named after people with problematic pasts?
For schools named after confederate leaders, the main arguments are basically that these figures represent slavery and white supremacy, and these names send the message to non-white students that they are inferior and are not welcome. Plus, the confederacy lost. And when it comes to other historical figures, the main arguments are that the problematic actions from a given figure outweigh their positive contributions. A school name honors and endorses the actions of the namesake, and proponents of name changes often argue that naming schools after people with problematic pasts undermine core values that schools should represent, such as integrity, equity, and kindness. If a school is named after someone who oppressed groups of people in the past, then that school name is not welcoming to all students.

**What are the main arguments against renaming schools?**
Some opponents think that changing the name of a school is an empty symbolic gesture that does nothing to combat real problems in education, and can end up costing a lot of money. Others feel that it’s unfair to judge historical figures by modern standards; slave owners or segregationists should be forgiven because that was the norm back then. Another major argument is more sentimental, in which school alumni feel a special attachment to their school name. If it was renamed, it would erase a part of their identity and history.

SELECTED SOURCES
Learning For Justice: Name Changers

New York Times: What Students are Saying about Renaming Schools

NBC News: Debate Over Renaming Schools Remains Impassioned Almost One Year After George Floyd’s Death

KUT: Here are the Arguments for and against Changing Confederate Names of Austin Schools

Equal Justice Institute: The Truth About Confederate Named Schools

Facing History: How One Student Is Removing His Schools Ties to the Eugenics Movement

Southern Poverty Law Center: Changing the Name and Narrative: Students Lead Movement to rename Schools Honoring Confederate Leaders

Chapters
0:00 Intro comedy skit
0:27 Intro to school name debate
1:54 Student views on school name
3:52 Arguments for renaming a school
4:12 Arguments against renaming a school
5:57 Reflections on school name debate

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[AboveTheNoise]

A lot of schools in the U.S. are named after people with problematic pasts. This is prompting districts all over to propose school name changes, which in turn causes big debates in these communities. What do you think - when is it the right call to cancel a school's name, and when should we just leave "well enough alone"?

[Jarom.M]

Whenever we are tackling a big project at work, we typically start with the "low hanging fruit" and then tackle the more difficult problems. I see this as no different: we, as a society, are working on the things that have the least impact to our culture before gearing up to take on the "big" stuff. Small discomforts acclimate us to be able to handle big discomforts.

[jamullin]

My HS’s name was the result of a two schools merging and the students were miraculously given the choice of which name to keep, and which mascot to adopt. I like the idea of having the students choose the mascots that reflect themselves rather than their parents.

[velihemming]

As non-american I don't get why schools have to be named after historical figures. Why can't they just be named by their location? Much more practical for everyone involved. If you hear the name of the school you know where it is (or at least general area).

[connecticutaggie]

Myles, great points in tackling a current but very controversial topic.
One of the challenges with looking into our heroes is that no one is perfect and confirmation bias always affects how be judge people so I am not sure how to get it right.
I was trying to think of someone that people would consider objectively good and I thought of Martin Luthur King Jr. but then I considered he was a Southern Baptist Minister so I am pretty sure there are some people would not agree with what he said from the pulpit. Since most of those are probably on record and I am sure there are a lot of the, so to I think that someone that was passionate enough about it would be able to find a lot to cite - and they would probably do it after they found out about the name change.

[likebot.]

Everywhere I turn I see the names of English Colonialism sprinkled with a little French, Scottish and so forth but the school I attended for my first two years of primary was named for its town which was given an aboriginal name in 1884. I prefer the idea of naming schools for street names like Maple, Elm or 5th Avenue, or even things like P.S. #17 etc.

[NoBodyToDanceWithMe]

I think that naming schools after like scientific theories would be pretty kickass imo. "What school did you go to" "I went to Doppler Effect"

A good chance to keep a fact with you your whole life (the definition of your school). The only downside of course is that science gets proven wrong pretty regularly, so we would come back to the problem of having to rename things after they're outdated.

Suggestion number 2? We name schools with the same names we give people, but it's not after anyone, it's just a name. "I went to Clarissa high school"

Other than that I know there's a lot of schools already named after things that aren't historical figures, actually there's only one in my city that's named after a person as far as I know. Others are named after the city or street the school is on, or it's a phrase from another language, or just absolute nonsense to me.

[DrewLonmyPillow]

4:13 changing the name will mean something to the people it directly affected at the time, but little else to the people to follow. Often times, the namesake of the school doesn't even come up as an issue for attending students unless it's made one.

[jim]

Those who went to PS-138 probably have a different perspective. Every historical figure I looked up to growing up have been found to have done terrible things. You wouldn't name a school after Ned Ludd or Zaphod Beeblebrox although I might. Maybe a question to consider is who should be naming schools? Towns? Streets?

[thomasr.jackson]

Celebrations of the losers? First name that popped to mind: Guy Fawkes Day. There is a celebration and icon with a weird and complicated history and radically different interpretations by the celebrants themselves.

[ryanmcfall]

I have a simple metric for if a school name/ statue/ whatever should be changed. What do we honor them for? is that something we honor today? If the second question is yes, then it should stay

[TrekkieBrie]

My high school was just named after the town it was in. Easy and drama free.

[MG-kjfx]

Unfortunately Canceling Jefferson, will mean canceling the good he did too. Always remember, there is no perfect human. I will say the bad he did was horrific.

[karaloop]

If you want to name schools after perfect human beings you are going to run out of candidates very soon.

[veta]

My high school is a mash of the three cities in our district Nordonia Hills (northfield, macedonia, Sagamore hills). Mascot was a knight. Idk it worked though lol

[butwhytho]

My HS used to be the Demons…. It was later changed to the Golden Knights lol…

[EnigmaticLucas]

My high school wasn’t (past tense because I’m in college now) named after a person, so never

[Haseri]

Why say cancel? They're trying to change the names, not erase or silence dead people?

[thomasr.jackson]

We Americans do like naming things for people with no connection to a place. It is odd. As you say, why people at all? In the US a lot of it came from a conscious effort to build national myths and heroes. A very questionable endeavor. On the other hand I think we can do better than, say, PS47 or the like.

[mtghd]

We have a similar debate in the UK too. Good Video!