Another School Denaming

 The Return of DWEM Days
   A few years ago the winds of sanctimony blew in, mainly from the south. Statues were toppled and names disappeared from schools. My sons had attended Ryerson Public School which could not withstand the sanctimonious blast. Committees met, meetings were held and after considerable deliberation this captivating moniker was delivered: Old North Public School.
  There was an American casualty as well. The F.D. Roosevelt Public School became Forest City Public School because of “F.D. Roosevelt’s historical connection to racism and controversial approach to Jewish refugees during the Holocaust, which are inconsistent with the school board’s values and commitments to human rights and equity,” the school board said in a statement."
   More committees undoubtedly were needed to update the school signage, change the logos, toss the stationary and put down the mascots. Self-righteousness can be costly. 

A School Bell No Longer Peals for Pepys
  Although things have been relatively quiet here, over in England where the other London is located, a school has decided to take Pepys' name off of one of the houses on their campus. The image above came with this telling headline: "Cambridgeshire School Which Dropped Historic Sex Offender Samuel Pepys' Name Reveals Replacement Figurehead," Gemma Gad, Peterborough Telegraph, Mar.11, 2026. 
   "A Peterborough area school which dropped the name ‘Samuel Pepys’ after learning of the historic figure’s sex offences – has now chosen a replacement. Staff and students at Hinchingbrooke School, in Huntingdon, have voted Olivia Bernard Sparrow as the new figurehead for one of its pastoral houses."

  It is astonishing to learn that they just learned that Pepys could be problematic. It is also interesting that the students participated in the name change selection, a precedent which it would be prudent to not adopt. One hopes that Ms. Sparrow did not keep a diary. 
   Readers of MM will know that I cancelled my subscription to the Washington Post. Before doing so, I grabbed the following piece and will provide portions of it, since the author and I are in agreement about denaming:
  "Another Ludicrous Canceling of a Name From the Past: Shaming the Dead is an Asinine Culture Warriors' Pastime: Now Its the Great Diarist Samuel Pepys's Turn," Andrew Doyle, Feb. 9, 2026.
   "Samuel Pepys was, famously, an extraordinary diarist, offering a vivid first-hand account of life in Restoration England from 1660 to 1669....This squeamishness over the diaries has never gone away. Recently, Hinchingbrooke School in Cambridgeshire — where Pepys was an alumnus — decided that one of its pastoral houses should no longer bear his name. This is just the latest example of an institution rewriting or minimizing aspects of its own history to fulfill the moral expectations of the present day.....The shaming of the dead is one of the most asinine pastimes of today’s culture warriors."

   One of the uses for AI at WaPo, was for summarizing the comments made about the articles written. I found it useful, some readers did not. Here is what AI concluded from the over 1,150 comments about the Pepys' piece. 
   "The conversation explores the decision by Hinchingbrooke School to remove Samuel Pepys's name from one of its pastoral houses, with participants expressing a range of opinions on the broader implications of renaming buildings and the concept of "cancel culture." Some commenters argue that renaming is a necessary step to align with modern values and to stop honoring historical figures whose actions are now considered reprehensible. Others see it as an overreaction or a distraction from more pressing issues, suggesting that it is part of a broader trend of erasing history. The discussion also touches on comparisons with other historical figures, such as Woodrow Wilson, and the actions of the Trump administration in altering historical narratives. Overall, the comments reflect a debate on how society should handle the legacies of historical figures and the criteria for honoring them in public spaces."

Oh-oh or Uh-oh: Denaming on a Massive Scale
  In the province of Quebec there is an attempt to enforce laicity, an action with which I am mostly sympathetic. Sometimes, however, the scale of sanctimonious actions can be considerable. To wit: this article was in the paper yesterday:

"Remove Religious Names from 'Secular' Schools," Raphaël Melançon

London Free Press, March 17, 2026:

"Guaranteeing a truly religion-free school environment."...

But is it really a "religion-free environment" when your school, despite prohibiting its employees from displaying their faith, still bears the name of a Catholic saint?

  In the village where I grew up, near Joliette, the local elementary school is still called Sacré-Coeur-de-Jésus, carved into the stone facade of the building. Every morning, when children walk into their school, they see reminders of the profoundly religious past of their community.

   And it is far from an isolated case. According to a list I compiled from various sources, out of nearly 2,000 public elementary schools in Quebec, more than 500 are named after a religious - most often Christian figure. That means more than one in four public elementary schools in this province bears the name of a saint, biblical figure or former prominent member of the clergy.....

"Secularism in our public institutions and schools is a non-negotiable principle," Drainville said to justify his government's recent decisions....

   But if the Education Ministry wants to be consistent with that same principle, it should start by examining how public schools across the province are named.

   And by doing so, it could get rid of relics of a long bygone religious past to bring the names of hundreds of our public schools into the 21st century."

  I will leave the conclusion to Twain:

   "We despise all reverences and all objects of reverence which are outside the pale of our list of sacred things. And yet, with strange inconsistency, we are shocked when other people despise and defile the things which are holy to us."

 The Bonus: 
  Those of you who are naughty and now curious about Pepys, can click on this link to his diary. What comes up is the diary entry for the day from about 365 years ago.

The Diary of Samuel Pepys: Daily Entries Form the 17th Century London Diary