A pedestrian passes under a sign at the Dianne Feinstein Elementary School in San Francisco on December 17, 2020.
Photograph:
Jeff Chiu / Associated Press
Until the San Francisco Unified School District council removed the name of Dianne Feinstein from one of its public schools, we were unaware of the senator’s services to the Confederation. As mayor of the city, she replaced a vandalized Confederate flag that was part of a historic display outside the city hall. So now it’s goodbye to Dianne Feinstein Primary School.
Feinstein’s purge is among the bans the council suffered on Tuesday night, when it voted 6-1 to rename 44 schools. The most absurd target is Abraham Lincoln, who waged the war that ended slavery. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Daniel Webster and Paul Revere were also canceled.
The criterion used to make the list of villains is whether they promoted slavery, genocide, oppression of women or “otherwise significantly diminished the opportunities for those among us of the right to life, freedom and the pursuit of happiness”.
But a name in a school is not a statement of perfection. And a society that scours history to keep those of the past in today’s standards will soon have no heroes to honor.
In a statement, London Mayor Breed said that while naming schools in the city is a worthwhile conversation, she cannot understand “why the School Council is moving forward on a plan to rename all of these schools by April, when there is no plan to have our children back in the classroom. “
By that measure, some future school council should consider today’s school council as equally guilty of reducing opportunities, especially for the poor, for the way they denied education to children in the pandemic.
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Published on January 29, 2021, print edition.