Saturday's Letter to the Editor concerning the correct pronunciation of "Moultrie" [How Do You Pronounce 'Moultrie'? brings another question to mind: what ever happened to Moultrie High School?It suffered the same fate as St. Andrews High School. I suppose St. Johns is next.
Evidently, when rebuilding high schools, past school boards in CCSD determined to wipe out any references to history--with the exception of Burke High School which, because of its history, was allowed to keep its name and even have a middle school with the same name.
Did the Board in its wisdom deign the name of a Revolutionary War hero too divisive? Was it concerned that Ohioans couldn't pronounce it? Did it ever occur to it that the many graduates of Moultrie might be more apt to support a school of that name than one named after a river? Did they really believe those graduates would be happy with a middle school of that name?
It's a mystery. Maybe someone who was living here at the time can justify the change.
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8 comments:
The first step in asserting control over a population is to erase their past. I believe Orwell's Animal Farm is a good illustration. CCSD has really played havoc with the history of public education here. Names, like schools and the communities they serve, are quite expendable. Never mind how our names are so grossly mispronounced. I'd almost settle for just keeping the names and the schools.
It would be nice if McClellanville, James Simons and Wilmot Fraser would some day return, to name a few more.
CCSD must be deaf and blind. There is likely another legal conflict in the making. As usual CCSD is so far behind the times. In its rush to avoid history, the district is running head-on into its own historic mistakes. School names are loaded with potential, if care is used in selecting them. Wando HS "Warriors" may be ripe for a defamation case against an ethnic group. CCSD might want to take a lesson from Newberry College (where the mascot was formerly known as the Indians). The only people Moultrie HS "Generals" might have insulted would have been a few hard core English tourists. The Scots, on the other hand, would have little trouble pronouncing it...and would probably appreciate the historic gesture, too. Poor CCSD. With so many carpetbaggers on board, they still don't get it. Nothing is sacred if you are without a clue.
Speaking of just not getting it...so how many times in the last 6 years has the Murray Hill school been morphed into something else? I commend CCSD for wanting to get it right, but how many false starts are necessary? How many kids have been lost in the process? Too many questions and too few answers. In this situation, it's not the failure to pronounce either Murray Hill or Daniel Jenkins correctly that is the problem. It's the gross negligence and failure of administrators to understand the related issues. Discipline, pressure to dropout and learning to read are not unrelated. Until our "experts" see this they will continue to expose the kids and the taxpayers to more trial and error experiments. CCSD officials need to learn how to recognize the logical and obvious solutions. CCSD needs to use common sense. The ivory tower must be a quiet and lonely place. I forgot. What have they decided to call Murray Hill this year?
Speaking of school name changes~~~ Alice Birney Middle will now be Northwoods Middle. Alice Birney was one of the founders of the national PTA and lived in Charleston part time; thus, the name. For years, Alice Birney Middle didn't have a PTSA, so guess that's why NOrthwoods Middle was chosen as the name. Think so?
Doesn't CCSD have a written policy that says how school names are to be established or changed? I would help if administrators and candidates for the county school board would have some understanding of the history of the school communities they propose to serve. The current crop of school administrators would probably flunk the test. McGinley and her public relations team are among the worst offenders. Thanks for the information on the reasons for naming Alice Burney. I didn't know that until now. What a shame to have the name disappear so easily with so little care from the top. Maybe they will eventually do the same to Zucker when his widow is gone and no one is around to remember anymore. Top CCSD officials are simply shallow users. They put almost nothing back into the system that gives them fat pay checks. Those bureaucrats care very little about the examples they set for the kids and even less about the community.
Before I get off the subject, look at what they pay themselves. McGinley makes only slightly less than the superintendents of schools for New York City and Washington, DC, both much large systems. While teachers here make about half what their counterparts make in those systems. If elected official top heavy pay scales for a small California town can spark outrage from local taxpayers, then imagine what we should think about how out of line our school officials are paid compared to teachers and line workers. In this time of cuts to pay and classroom programs, McGinley gets a raise, more perks, and gets to hire more associate superintendents (?) faster than she can make up titles for. What gives?
I, too, would like to know the process that CCSD uses to change schools' names. Are teachers, the communities or the administrators asked for input? In my opinion, naming Alice Birney "Northwoods Middle" is just lame. There are already too many "Northwood" names in the area. But, there again, I wasn't asked for any input.
Take it from an original source...as appeared in the Letters column in the P&C on yesterday. It is well spoken:
SAY IT RIGHT
I do appreciate the lesson in linguistics offered by a letter writer in Saturday's paper. I, too, have heard 'Moultrie' pronounced a number of ways, including 'Mooltrie.'
Let me offer a pronunciation that has been in my family at least as long as 'Mooltrie' has been in his. The 'L' is silent, making the pronunciation 'Mootrie.'
You see, my brother is a Moultrie. My father was a Moultrie, as was his father. My great-grandmother was Mary Louisa Moultrie. She was the 16th generation in a long line of Moultries.
We are descendants of John Moultrie, Gen. William Moultrie's brother, and in our house, we pronounce it 'Mootrie.'
JEFF McD. BALL
Pawley Road
Mount Pleasant
I can still hear the letter writer's mother correcting me until I got it. It wasn't that difficult.
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