What's with these dopey school names?

Next question. Where are these schools located and what communities are included in these schools? Quite honestly, I don't know the names of most of the towns comprising these school districts or or where they are located. Maybe I should, but I don't. I guess the reason I don't want to know is that I find it ridiculous to come up with a meaningless generic name for a school district.

I am sure the reason that we have these anonymous meaningless school names is to keep harmony among the communities that are included in the school district. Heaven forbid that we should actually name a school after the town it is located in. This would ruffle the feathers of the other towns who send their students to the town where the campus is located.

When the Fieldcrest school district was formed every attempt was made to wipe out any vestige of school history. Besides coming up with a meaningless name, trophies were removed from the Minonk gymnasium and relegated to the scrap heap.

Instead of referring to Fieldcrest why not use the name Minonk Area Community High School? After all the school is comprised of students from communities around Minonk. If we refer to Minonk Area Community High School everyone would know where to go to find the school. For those who object to naming the high school after Minonk, I have no objection to renaming Fieldcrest West the Toluca Middle School Wildcats, or Fieldcrest East the Wenona Middle School TIFFers. They are all included in Unit District Six but that doesn't mean that each individual school has to have the same name ending with a compass point. Naming a school after a real physical location gives students a sense of identification with a real entity. Having a meaningless name only adds to the confusion and detachment that plagues today's youth.

A solution for naming a newly consolidated school district after one of the communities is to pick the community that stands to gains the least from entering into the consolidation. Call this an incentive for the stronger school district to enter into such a consolidation if you will. However, in this age of political correctness this isn't going to happen either.

I am sure the Fieldcrest School Board will not call a special meeting to take up my proposal to rename the school. However, if they do they might consider coming up with a different school logo or nick name. I have to admit that I must have been in Timbuktu or somewhere else when someone suggested that Knights sounded like a good name for the newly incorporated Fieldcrest school district. First of all, Fieldcrest is the name of a towel sold by J. C. Penney. Where did that name come from? Why not the Fieldcrest Towels? Then we can use our rallying cry "We will wipe you out".

Secondly, what does a medieval Knight have to do with a Central Illinois Community? The only thing hanging around Minonk in the Middle Ages were buffalo and Indians. Why not pick a name that has some relevance to our history and our place in the country? Looking elsewhere we have the Flanagan Falcons. We have falcons in this country. There is the Lowpoint-Washburn Wildcats. Yes, there are wildcats here too. The Metamora Redbirds, the Eureka Hornets, the Washington Panthers, all sporting names that are common to our country. My favorite Illinois school nick name is the Cobden Apple Knockers located in apple orchard country in Southern Illinois. At least their logo is reflective of their community.

Coal mining was a major industry in all of the Fieldcrest communities. Why didn't someone think of "Miners" for a nick name. Minonk Miners has a nice ring to it. Of course, no one would dare use the word "Farmers" for a nick name as that would not be cool enough. "Miners" doesn't sound too cool either. What could be more dashing than a Knight? A suit of armor looks better than a statue of a miner in the hallowed halls of our school.

I am sure nothing is going to come from my plaintive cry. I just feel better letting everyone know that not everyone is happy with the name Fieldcrest or the nickname Knights.