Columbus legacy adrift in the suburban sea
Many suburbanites slept in Monday as the perfect extension of a gloriously beautiful fall weekend. Others answered early alarms, grumbled all the way to work and wondered if slapdash plans to navigate their kids through a Columbus Day holiday with no school would be smooth sailing.
Few people celebrate Columbus Day or even make special plans. If you were to rank the 10 federal holidays in order of importance, Columbus Day might be dead last. Our federal holidays celebrate workers, soldiers, our nation's independence, Christmas, Thanksgiving, New Year's Day, two great American leaders in George Washington and Martin Luther King Jr., and then Columbus, who never stepped foot in this nation and whose exploits blend myths, politics, religion, history, immigration and controversy into one October Monday known primarily for less traffic during the morning commute.
No matter how you feel about Christopher Columbus a great explorer who discovered America or a misguided seafarer who brought diseases and ills that ravaged a civilization the guy has been part of our American culture since 1492.
But you'd need a telescope to spot any signs of Columbus in our suburbs. While we name schools after presidents, poets, inventors, scientists, writers, astronauts and others whose names are synonymous with reaching for the stars and exploration, we don't have a single school named after Columbus. There are a few Columbus schools scattered across the state my favorite being Edwardsville's Columbus Elementary, which has a ship on its website with the slogan “Where Young Minds Set Sail.
That's great imagery. But suburban schools seek inspiration elsewhere. From Elgin's Abbott Middle School, named in memory of one-time prominent doctor Edward H. Abbott, to St. Charles' Wredling Middle School, named in honor of former superintendent John H. Wredling, suburban schools often honor people from our communities. Anderson Elementary School in St. Charles is named after Amelia Anderson, the district's first school nurse.
While I understand the complexities of naming a school after Columbus in today's often-contentious political climate, it does seem surprising to me that none of our suburban schools bestowed the name Columbus on a building decades ago. After all, we have several schools from Black Hawk Elementary School in Glendale Heights to Chippewa schools in Des Plaines and Bensenville named in honor of the people who already were living in America when Columbus discovered it.
The Land of Lincoln boasts more than three dozen schools named after our 16th president, from Lake in the Hills to Naperville. All the Naperville Unit District 203 junior high schools (Washington, Lincoln, Jefferson, Madison and Kennedy) are named after presidents. We have an ample number of schools named Monroe, Eisenhower and McKinley. Dixon has a school named Reagan, and Chicago has a Nixon school, but it's not named after that Nixon. Illinois has schools named after not-quite-presidents such as Adlai Stevenson, Benjamin Franklin and Everett Dirksen.
Hoffman Estates named a school after World War II Gen. Douglas MacArthur, who surely can't be any less controversial than Columbus. In what might go down as a decision made a bit too hastily, Calumet City has the Carol Moseley Braun Elementary School. Perhaps it will one day be one of the many Illinois schools renamed after Barack Obama.
It's not as if our schools are opposed to honoring explorers. There's the Admiral Richard E. Byrd Elementary School in Elk Grove Village, the Alan B. Shepard Middle School in Deerfield and the Neil Armstrong Elementary School in Hoffman Estates. Peoria honored Charles A. Lindbergh with a school, and old “Lucky Lindy probably has drawn more criticism than Columbus in recent years.
The best way for Columbus to get a school named after him would have been if he were the one who wrote that “In fourteen-hundred and ninety-two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue poem. The suburbs have more schools named after poets and writers than I have room to list. I wanted to talk with the powers that be about why things are the way they are, but it's nearly impossible to reach anyone on the holiday.