By Steve Sailer
10/16/2020
Despite its vast wealth, San Francisco has notoriously awful public schools with low test scores. But don’t worry, the school board has a plan to fix the badness of its schools: the rectification of names. From SFGate.com:
San Francisco may rename 44 schools named after Washington, Lincoln, Feinstein and more
by Eric Ting
Oct. 16, 2020George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and even Sen. Dianne Feinstein have been deemed too problematic to be featured in the names of schools in the San Francisco Unified School District by a panel of 12 community members appointed by the superintendent.
Three weeks ago, the panel found that 44 of the 125 schools in the district might have to change their names after their review. KGO reported that panel members sought to rename schools currently featuring the names of, "anyone directly involved in the colonization of people, slave owners or participants in enslavement, perpetrators 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 abuse [and] those who are known racists and/or white supremacists and/or espoused racist beliefs."
The Chronicle reported Wednesday that parents and principals were formally asked this week to brainstorm potential new names by Dec. 18, a move that was not well-received given the fact that schools are still in distanced learning due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The school board will then vote on any potential name changes in January or February of 2021 … .
Schools named after former presidents George Washington and Thomas Jefferson are on the list due to the two presidents’ slave-owning status, and a school named after Abraham Lincoln is on the list because of his treatment of Native Americans.
Dianne Feinstein Elementary School made the list because she reportedly replaced a vandalized Confederate flag flying outside City Hall when she was mayor in 1984. Progressives have recently been irate at Feinstein after her embrace of South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham at the end of the Amy Coney Barrett Supreme Court nomination hearings.
Also on the list is El Dorado Elementary School, because panel members took issue with the concept of El Dorado.
“The concept of El Dorado, especially in California, had a lot to do with the search of gold, and for the indigenous people that meant the death of them,” panel member Mary Travis Allen said during a September meeting. “I don’t think the concept of greed and lust for gold is a concept we want our children to be given.”
Here are the evil 44 school names, with descriptions of the more obscure sources:
Abraham Lincoln High School
Alamo Elementary
Alvarado Elementary — Californio rebel who fought for California’s independence from Mexico
Balboa High School — Silent upon a peak in Darien
Bryant Elementary — William Cullen Bryant, author of “To a Waterfowl”?
Claire Lilienthal (both campuses) — school board member
Clarendon Elementary and Japanese Bilingual Bicultural Program — British foreign secretary?
Commodore Sloat Elementary — Claimed California for US in 1845
Daniel Webster Elementary — Compromise of 1850?
Dianne Feinstein Elementary — see above
El Dorado Elementary — see above
Everett Middle School — ??? Civil War orator?
Francis Scott Key Elementary
Frank McCoppin Elementary — first mayor of SF
Garfield Elementary — Republican
George Washington High School
Grattan Elementary — ???
Herbert Hoover Middle School
James Denman Middle School — “Father of SF public schools”
James Lick Middle School — Piano maker and real estate investor, became wealthiest man in California —
He originally wanted to build giant statues of himself and his parents, and erect a pyramid larger than the Great Pyramid of Giza in his own honor in downtown San Francisco. However, through the efforts of George Davidson, president of the California Academy of Sciences, Lick was persuaded to leave the greatest portion of his fortune to the establishment of a mountaintop observatory, with the largest, most powerful telescope yet built by man.
Jefferson Elementary
John Muir Elementary — Conservationist, founder of Sierra Club
Jose Ortega Elementary — Perhaps discovered San Francisco Bay 1769
Junipero Serra Elementary — founder of California Missions
Lawton Alternative K-8 — Military hero who captured Geronimo?
Lowell High School — Abolitionist poet, editor of Atlantic Monthly
Marshall Elementary — lots of Marshalls in American history
McKinley Elementary
Mission High School
Monroe Elementary
Noriega EES — Commandante of Mexican California
Paul Revere K-8
Presidio EES
Presidio Middle School
Robert Louis Stevenson Elementary — What did the author of Treasure Island ever do to encourage children to read?
Roosevelt Middle School
Sanchez Elementary — Commandante of Mexican California
Sheridan Elementary — Civil War Union general?
Sherman Elementary — Civil War Union general
Stockton EES — Conquered California in 1846
Sutro Elementary — Jewish public benefactor and mayor, built famous Sutro public swimming pool
Ulloa Elementary — Spanish scientist and naval officer?
11 of 44 Bad Names are Spanish words or names.
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