All of Newton’s public schools are named after men*. But four of Newton’s public schools aren’t named after anyone. Isn’t it time to honor a notable Newton woman? Who would you choose?
*Albert Angier, Edward Bowen, Charles Burr, John Cabot, Ben Franklin, Horace Mann, Abe Lincoln, John Eliot, David Mason, Marshall Rice, Frank Spaulding, Cyrus Pierce, Adin Underwood, John Ward, Thomas Williams, Frank Zervas, Henry Bigelow, Charles Brown, Frank Day.
My vote: Louise Bruyn, founder of Green Decade, one of Newton’s most effective and influential environmental organizations, who in 1971 walked from her home in Newton over 450 miles to Washington, DC to stop the war in Vietnam. What an inspiring example she has set for Newton’s girls and boys.
Great post Nathan, and great choice. I second it.
Except…Last I knew, Louise Bruyn was alive, thriving and talking about her experience as if it happened last week. I hope that is still the case!
Great post Nathan.
Louise Bruyn is very much alive and well and is a great idea.
Another idea: Adelaide Ball, the first woman alderman.
Also Carol Robinson, first African American alderwoman
Emily, great suggestions – and it’s also great that there are 4 unnamed schools!
Btw, your raising the issue of how we title our legislators is what prompted my son Julian and I to think about and look up our school names – so thank you.
Can’t we get a market study of the naming value of these schools before we lose another opportunity? There are more than a few schools cycling off in the 20 year CIP — we have an opportunity to see what we can generate on these tax exempt properties as an annual naming license. Abe Lincoln and Ben Franklin will not be insulted.
I was going to make a Carrie Underwood joke before looking up the origin of our son’s school’s name:
http://underwood.newton.k12.ma.us/UnderwoodInfo. If I had known that in the past (possible), I had forgotten
Reformer and educator Elizabeth Peabody opened the first English-language kindergarten in the U.S. and through her publications and lobbying helped to establish kindergarten as a key part of American education. She lived in West Newton from 1850 to 1859, founded her kindergarten in Boston the following year, and in 1864 was instrumental in the development of an early kindergarten at a school started by her brother-in-law, Horace Mann, in West Newton.
Which will come first to Newton — an school named for a woman or full-day kindergarten?
It’s unlikely that South and North will ever be renamed, so that leaves us with just Countryside and Oak Hill. I like this idea!
I’m with Hoss… Why would we give away something as valuable as naming rights for free?
It’s not really “for free” if we make a careful, thoughtful. well-deserved, decision. Honoring those who’ve served us is priceless.
I went to Meadowbrook – I refuse to tell people it is now the “Charlie Brown” school.
Another suggestion: Elizabeth Fyffe, founder of the All Newton Music School. She opened the school in 1911 to provide music lessons to lower-income Newton families.
Annie Cobb, an architect when hardly any women were. Her houses are still beautiful 140 years later, and thankfully preserved. I went on Historic Newton’s walking tour of many of them in Newton Highlands. Jackson Homestead still has an exhibit about her; this is the description from historicnewton.org:
She’s a great role model for STEM!
These women all deserve schools named for them.
As an aside, Doug’s mention of Colonel Underwood (later Brigadier General Underwood) barely survived, and had been presumed dead, after the Battle of Lookout Mountain which was followed by the Battle Above the Clouds. Climbing the mountain in dense fog, his men overcame great odds to win this battle. Now called Point Park, it is a beautiful reminder of a pivotal moment. I grew up on that mountain and have retraced that climb many times.
Schools aren’t the only opportunity… there will also be some street renaming, if the proposal to eliminate duplicate street names moves forward.
I second Bruce’s suggestion of Elizabeth Peabody – a fitting tribute to an education pioneer.
It would be great if all the schools contained visible information on the namesake of the school whatever her gender. The Angier School had a fine exhibit on the world of Albert Angier which I hope can be expanded in the new building, particularly since it will open about one hundred years after his death in World War I.
I never knew much about Ralph Waldo Emerson, the namesake of my elementary school until long after I had graduated from it. It was a pleasant surprise that he was perhaps the major American philosopher of his time and the contemporary of Thoreau and other great residents of Concord. It’s intriguing to think of him living down off Woodward Street, preaching at the church on Summer Street (now the Buddhist Temple), and dining at
Sunnyside, the home of industrialist Otis Pettee, and now the core of the Stone Institute.
I only learned of the role of General Underwood in a walking tour of the Newton Cemetery.
Does anyone know if information on General Underwood is displayed at the school named for him?
@Brian I agree! It is actually kind of sad that I attended Horace Mann School having no idea who he was. I only learned who Frank Ashley Day was by googling him a couple years ago, then paying the archive fee to read a Boston Globe story about him.
@Emily – Sadly, I think that’s true for most kids who go to schools named after anyone but the most famous. Your post led me to look up the person my chidlhood elementary school was named after, and it turns out she was a remarkable feminist from a century earlier. Wish I’d known that back then!
As a parent, having the kids know that Angier was named after a neighborhood “kid” is great, and the display is great. It would be great for schools to be named after local people (and here in Newton, I am surprised that all named schools are for men).
Whoever said which will come first a school named for a female or full day kindy – I love your thinking!
Just as a suggestion, name one of the schools after Judith Malone-Neville…she was an English teacher at South, then Housemaster, then Principal at Brown. That is not a lightweight track record by anyone’s estimation.
(Disclaimer, I am biased here, she was one of my teachers then Housemaster)
@mgwa – it could be a plaque at the school, it could be a posted in the main hallway… it could even be a project for a group of kids themselves to research the school’s namesake then build the display. Definitely doable!
I nominate Lillie Jefferson, who passed away this week. Lillie and her husband Matthew Jefferson, former President of the Board of Aldermen,devoted their lives to equity in education, housing, employment and housing. She was the first METCO Coordinator in the Newton Public Schools, helped establish a scholarship fund and programs to assist Newton METCO students. She was a very active member of the Myrtle Baptist Church since 1928 when she first came to West Newton, and a leader in our community.
@Emily – In my experience, a plaque doesn’t do anything for kids learning – when they start school most of them can’t read, and by the time they can it’s become part of the background scenery they don’t even notice.
Have the kids build a display each year would be great. Or have there be a lesson on that person as part of the school curriculum. I’m very sorry it took me 50 years to learn what an amazing woman my school was named after.
Another notable woman in Newton history:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Fuller
So many amazing women – clearly we need to build more schools to name them after! 🙂
@emily — funny came across this page five years later doing just what you did to google Frank Ashley Day’s name to understand where the YMCA camp and also my sons’ school came from. Funny you mention Horace Mann, I learned about him, but suggesting to my son to write a story about him as part of his third grade project on historical figures! For the rest of you — yes emily’s kids and mine have gone to the same schools for years!