# I pit the Houston Independent School District **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 25, 2016, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-houston-independent-school-district/755624 "2016-05-25T03:29:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2016, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-houston-independent-school-district/755624/1 "2016-05-25T03:29:25Z")
I pit the Houston Independent School District for its massive stupidity and waste of taxpayer dollars in renaming schools that had names of Confederates. Political correctness running amok again, and the taxpayers take it in the shorts - again. It’s no wonder HISD is a sub-par school district. Political correctness is far, far more important than, ya know, actually teaching the kids. > **[HISD votes to rename schools with Confederate ties](https://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/HISD-removes-names-of-8-schools-with-Confederate-7465929.php)** > > Eight names that have adorned Houston school buildings, uniforms and spirit items for... ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2016, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-houston-independent-school-district/755624/2 "2016-05-25T03:40:25Z")
That’s horrible that they should be prevented from honoring traitors and the great tradition of slavery. ---
**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2016, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-houston-independent-school-district/755624/3 "2016-05-25T03:40:47Z")
It’s hell getting old, isn’t it? Times move on. The world changes. Nothing gold can stay. As sands through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives. Boo. Hoo. ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2016, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-houston-independent-school-district/755624/4 "2016-05-25T03:48:55Z")
And if you want to complain about wasting money: [$60 Million Texas High School Stadium Deemed Unsafe for Football](http://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/60-million-texas-high-school-stadium-deemed-unsafe-football-n109946) Hey! Let’s build another! [That’s Right, $63 Million for a Football Stadium … for High Schoolers](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/12/sports/high-school-football-stadium-texas-63-million.html) Let’s not be left behind! [Ground broken on America’s most expensive high school football stadium](http://usatodayhss.com/2016/ground-broken-on-americas-most-expensive-high-school-football-stadium) So how much did it cost to change the names of a few schools? ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2016, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-houston-independent-school-district/755624/5 "2016-05-25T04:07:48Z")
Don’t worry, Mr. **'hump** ; as soon as that bid for secession passes, they’ll change the names right back. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2016, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-houston-independent-school-district/755624/6 "2016-05-25T04:31:18Z")
I’m more concerned whether they mean AS Johnston or JE Johnston. I’ll assume the former because he was from Texas, but the school website seems to not mention so I’ll just ask what their big problem is with Austin’s Daniel Johnston. Otherwise name changes get a yawn, and I can’t care too much either way. Except NB Forrest, fuck that guy. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2016, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-houston-independent-school-district/755624/7 "2016-05-25T07:01:27Z")
Yeah, but the thing is that all the daily stupidity has been of the Republican side recently. Clothy can’t wait that long to making a complete idiot of himself again, and so he overreacts yet again while trying to find anything to blame on them evil liberals. Even if Texas doesn’t secede, can we give Clothy away? Maybe he’d prefer things in China. ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2016, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-houston-independent-school-district/755624/8 "2016-05-25T07:12:46Z")
John Nova Lomax has [a good piece](http://www.texasmonthly.com/the-daily-post/renaming-schools-named-confederates-take-hard-look-replacements/) in _Texas Monthly_. > [@](#): > > The Houston Independent School District’s ongoing de-Confederatizing process continues. Earlier this week they released a list of proposed new names for schools currently named for Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, Dick Dowling, Albert Sidney Johnston, John Reagan, and Sidney Lanier… > > The board has proposed changing merely the first name of Sidney Lanier Middle School to Bob Lanier Middle School, to honor a former Houston mayor… > > First, a brief refresher on the school’s current namesake. Sidney Lanier was a private in the Confederate army who later repudiated his service and “rejoiced” at the downfall of slavery. Lanier won his fame as a poet and musician after the war. Unlike Davis, Lee, and Jackson and their like, he was no rebel leader—he later described himself as a teenager who got caught up in the patriotic frenzy of his native Georgia, where to shirk service was to become a pariah. Though little read today, he was widely-renowned in the nineteenth and early twentieth century, and one of the very few literati from the Old South to achieve widespread fame. Lomax goes into reasons why Bob Lanier might not be a great choice–many in Houston do _not_ have fond memories of him. Some Houstonians honor[Dick Dowling](http://exhibits.library.rice.edu/exhibits/show/dick-dowling) as an Irish immigrant & early Houston entrepreneur. Besides, he died of yellow fever in 1867–so he was never an Old Confederate. But there’s no need to keep the school name–or the name of Dowling Avenue. Those other names without even local roots? Dump them. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2016, 7:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-houston-independent-school-district/755624/9 "2016-05-25T07:29:05Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > Political correctness is far, far more important than, ya know, actually teaching the kids. Political correctness or not, I don’t see how the name of the school is a major factor in the quality of the education they provide. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2016, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-houston-independent-school-district/755624/10 "2016-05-25T07:53:16Z")
> [@Bridget\_Burke](#): > > Lomax goes into reasons why Bob Lanier might not be a great choice–many in Houston do _not_ have fond memories of him. Some Houstonians honor[Dick Dowling](http://exhibits.library.rice.edu/exhibits/show/dick-dowling) as an Irish immigrant & early Houston entrepreneur. Besides, he died of yellow fever in 1867–so he was never an Old Confederate. But there’s no need to keep the school name–or the name of Dowling Avenue. I remember reading something about a plan (don’t know if it went through or even what state) to rename something named after immigrant Patrick Cleburne. He was the Confederate general who had the temerity to suggest freeing the slaves (contingent on taking up arms). > [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Political correctness or not, I don’t see how the name of the school is a major factor in the quality of the education they provide. I’m sure that Jack T. Chick Bible College would have a stellar biology program. ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2016, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-houston-independent-school-district/755624/11 "2016-05-25T08:07:34Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > Political correctness running amok again Blame it on Dylann Roof and his lovely little Confederate fetish. It seems to be generally agreed that the current wave of popular revulsion for Confederate icons was launched by domestic terrorist Roof’s embrace of them as symbols and inspiration for his racist murderous rampage. People put up with the glorification of the iconography of pro-secession, pro-slavery separatists for a long while, on the grounds that its defenders considered it “heritage, not hate”. Well, surprise, turns out it **is** about hate, at least for a sufficiently large and violent minority to produce an actual mass murderer claiming to espouse its ideals. Yeah, Confederate “heroes” aren’t looking so appealing just now, but that ain’t the Houston school district’s fault. Anyway, if you want to grouse about “political correctness running amok”, you can rev yourself up by contemplating the [Jewish community of Quebec](http://www.bill613.com/news/outrage-after-street-names-and-monuments-named-after-anti-semites-discovered-across-quebec/) who’ve had the temerity to complain about city streets and monuments honoring anti-Semites: > [@](#): > > Alexis Carrel was a prominent French surgeon, biologist and eugenist who won the 1912 Nobel prize in physiology or medicine. […] Carrel advocated that there was a “hereditary biological aristocracy” and suggested that “deviants” should be killed in ways that the Nazis would later implement. […] > > Philipp Lenard was openly anti-Semitic, a big supporter of Adolph Hitler […] and an active proponent of Nazi ideology. He won the 1905 Nobel prize for physics. […] > > These two men were honoured with streets named after them in France and in Quebec. […] > > In the heart of Montreal’s Jewish community is a street often used by commuters from Hampstead, Cote St Luc and NDG that is named after the woman responsible for the expulsion of Jews from Spain in 1492 and for the inquisition who burned an estimated 31,912 “heretics” […] > > A recent Opinion piece in the Montreal Gazette by Shloime Perel called for Isabella Street to be renamed, and two monuments honouring Queen Isabella of Spain to be removed. […] > > There are streets named after Lionel Groulx in Montreal, St Leonard, Boucherville, Mascouche, Chateauguay and all over Quebec. […] > > While some of his alleged statements are still being debated, historians agree that Groulx displayed at least some form of open hatred of Jews. […] > > The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs sent an open letter to Gatineau Mayor Maxime Pedneaud-Jobin in which they called the honouring of Nazi sympathizers “an insult to the sacrifices of Canadians and Quebecers as well as soldiers from Gatineau who fought to liberate Europe from the Nazis.” They called for the street names to be changed. They also plan on sending similar letters to the Mayors of Boisbriand, Montreal and RDP. Just another bout of massive stupidity and political correctness run amok, huh, **Clothahump**? ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2016, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-houston-independent-school-district/755624/12 "2016-05-25T11:51:25Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > It’s no wonder HISD is a sub-par school district. My kids graduated from a par highschool, I’m glad to say. ---
**Author:** ![Emiliana](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/f0a364/32.png) [@Emiliana](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Emiliana)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2016, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-houston-independent-school-district/755624/13 "2016-05-25T12:02:33Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > My kids graduated from a par highschool, I’m glad to say. Back in Clothahump’s day, all schools were above par. ---
**Author:** ![Superdude](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/superdude/32/13450_2.png) [@Superdude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Superdude)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2016, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-houston-independent-school-district/755624/14 "2016-05-25T12:10:20Z")
> [@Emiliana](#): > > Back in Clothahump’s day, all schools were above par. They were also one-room, and the teachers were lucky to make it to 30 without being eaten by dinosaurs ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2016, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-houston-independent-school-district/755624/15 "2016-05-25T12:26:57Z")
> [@Emiliana](#): > > Back in Clothahump’s day, all schools were above par. > [@](#): > > Born in Canton, Ohio, on May 1, 1918, Jack Harold Paar dropped out of high school in the 10th grade to take a job as a radio announcer and DJ. :dubious: Hmmmm. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2016, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-houston-independent-school-district/755624/16 "2016-05-25T12:27:59Z")
Am I the only one thinking that maybe, you know, just stop naming schools after political/historical figures, or even safer, not after people at all? Easy future-proofing against this kind of thing. It’s not like in fifty years, anyone’s going to object to “Bland Valley High School” or “Beige Meadows Elementary” over their historical implications… ---
**Author:** ![Bridget\_Burke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7cd45c/32.png) [@Bridget\_Burke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bridget_Burke)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2016, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-houston-independent-school-district/755624/17 "2016-05-25T13:13:04Z")
> [@VinylTurnip](#): > > Am I the only one thinking that maybe, you know, just stop naming schools after political/historical figures, or even safer, not after people at all? Easy future-proofing against this kind of thing. > > It’s not like in fifty years, anyone’s going to object to “Bland Valley High School” or “Beige Meadows Elementary” over their historical implications… From [John Nova Lomax’s article](http://www.texasmonthly.com/the-daily-post/renaming-schools-named-confederates-take-hard-look-replacements/): > [@](#): > > Three of the schools would take the names of their neighborhoods: Northside High School is to replace Davis, Heights High School is to replace Reagan, and the Meyerland Performing and Visual Arts Middle School is to replace Johnston. A teacher (Margaret Long Wisdom) and two community leaders (Yolanda Black Navarro and Audrey Lawson) are also on the list of proposed changes that the board will vote for on Thursday, though the Reverend Bill Lawson, Audrey’s widower, has twice asked that her name be withdrawn from consideration, citing a local preference for a much-beloved teacher in Dick Dowling Middle School’s Hiram Clarke neighborhood. > > And then there’s the Lanier-to-Lanier proposal. The board has proposed changing merely the first name of Sidney Lanier Middle School to Bob Lanier Middle School, to honor a former Houston mayor, a man with a far more complex legacy than Wisdom, Navarro, or Lawson. So, the proposed name _are_ either more generic or of local importance. And I agree that Bob Lanier is a problematic choice. All those Confederate names were bestowed when HISD was segregated; times have changed. Sam Houston, the city’s namesake & victor of San Jacinto, did not get a namesake school until fairly recently; Confederate apologists disliked his opposition to Secession. (Since the article’s publication, the HISD board approved the new school names.) ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2016, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-houston-independent-school-district/755624/18 "2016-05-25T13:42:50Z")
> [@Bridget\_Burke](#): > > From [John Nova Lomax’s article](http://www.texasmonthly.com/the-daily-post/renaming-schools-named-confederates-take-hard-look-replacements/): How odd… I actually went to high school with that guy- he was a year or two ahead of me. Hadn’t heard his name in years. Anyway, HISD does pretty much suck, but even back in the late 80s/early 90s, it seemed kind of weird to me that some of the blackest schools in the district were named after Confederates. I do take exception for Sidney Lanier though; the man is famous for his post-war poetry and literary achievements, not for any kind of wartime anything. From what I can tell, he merely served in the Confederate army as an enlisted man. There’s no reason whatsoever to rename the school named for him. Similarly, Lawrence Sullivan Ross is primarily commemorated in Texas for his post-war gubernatorial and college president activities and pre-war Texas Ranger activities, even though he was a Confederate general as well. And I predict a political fight of biblical proportions if someone tries to remove the statue of him on the Texas A&M campus. OTOH, I don’t have a problem with renaming schools named for non-local confederates, or locals solely known for their Confederate activities. That’s nothing but odious and should have been done long ago. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2016, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-houston-independent-school-district/755624/19 "2016-05-25T14:21:30Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > Political correctness or not, I don’t see how the name of the school is a major factor in the quality of the education they provide. I think the kids might be temporarily distracted by **Clothy** ’s hissy fit more than they would be by a school name change. ---
**Author:** ![Subterraneanus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Subterraneanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Subterraneanus)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2016, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-houston-independent-school-district/755624/20 "2016-05-25T14:22:07Z")
> [@Clothahump](#): > > I pit the Houston Independent School District for its massive stupidity and waste of taxpayer dollars in renaming schools that had names of Confederates. Political correctness running amok again, and the taxpayers take it in the shorts - again. > > It’s no wonder HISD is a sub-par school district. Political correctness is far, far more important than, ya know, actually teaching the kids. > > [http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/HISD-removes-names-of-8-schools-with-Confederate-7465929.php](http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/HISD-removes-names-of-8-schools-with-Confederate-7465929.php) Good for HISD. Sucks to be you. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-pit-the-houston-independent-school-district/755624.md?page=2)