Charlotte-Mecklenburg's new Mallard Creek High illustrates a national trend in school names, according to a new study that finds nature names are hot while people names are fading. "Many of these new school names have the feel of subdivision names. They're inoffensive and pleasant, as if one were marketing a house," says Jay Greene, who chairs the University of Arkansas Department of Education Reform and is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, which sponsored the study.
He and his co-authors say that's a bad thing. They theorize that naming schools for presidents and other leaders helps educate students about civic values. "Naming something after a lake or a creek or a tree doesn't really mean much," Greene says.
The Manhattan Institute, a nonprofit think tank that focuses on political culture and public policy, reviewed school names in seven states, not including the Carolinas. Older schools were more likely to bear presidents' names, researchers found, while newer schools more often evoked "hills, trees, or animals." In Florida, for instance, researchers found 11 schools named for manatees -- and only five for George Washington.
Presidential schools have never been big in the Charlotte region. Even CMS's Kennedy Middle and Harding High are named after the late Sen. Kennedy and former Superintendent Harry Harding.
But critters don't get much credit, either. There's the occasional Mallard Creek or Hawk Ridge, but nary a mammal, let alone a manatee. A sense of place dominates schools in Mecklenburg and surrounding counties.
Many are named for towns, creeks, roads and other landmarks. Others rely on compass directions (East Union, Northwest Cabarrus, West Charlotte). "I think people like location names so they can find the school on a map," says Liz Poole, chairman of the Cabarrus County school board, who says she also likes honoring people.
"I'm not certain that I would vote to name a school after George Washington," she added. "I'd rather name schools after local people who have made an impact on education here." That's the route Cabarrus and many other districts take.
CMS's tally of people-named schools includes four governors, four superintendents, three school board members, five local educators and a couple of landowners, says Chris Folk, who retired from CMS after 37 years and acts as the district's unofficial historian. The Manhattan Institute study, called "The Decline in the Civic Mission of School Names," theorizes that boards shy away from honoring leaders because that often sparks controversy. True, says CMS board chair Joe White, who recalls the board launching competing proposals to honor Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton (neither gained any traction).
Board member Vilma Leake says honoring role models is worth the trouble. "It helps to motivate the children to be like these individuals." Kelley O'Brien, director of the N.
C. Civic Education Consortium at the UNC Chapel Hill School of Government, and Howard Lee, chair of the N.C.
Board of Education, are skeptical school names promote civic values -- a purely speculative theory, the authors admit. What's in a Name? A sampling of area school names and the stories behind them.
Charlotte-Mecklenburg's new Mallard Creek High illustrates a national trend in school names, according to a new study that finds nature names are hot while people names are fading.
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