The 17-acre construction site includes land that had been timber, a tree-lined-but-rundown mobile home park and a couple of houses. One of the houses and two garages were sold and relocated, the trailers moved or scrapped, and trees cleared to make way for the school. The site is within the city and abuts a residential area on the east, railroad tracks on the south, church property on the west and Sunnyside Avenue on the north.
While the decision makes this school the first building or street in Leopold's hometown named for him, viewed through the lens of Leopold's writings, is the naming appropriate?
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Naming the new middle school after Aldo Leopold is absolutely appropriate and the best option the school board had to review. It provides an opportunity to celebrate a local hero, or prophet, if you will, of the environmental movement. And it creates an on-going, real life connection between the kids and something much bigger than themselves, namely, all the work done by Leopold adherents around the world. The question of whether the new building is "green" enough when viewed through the Leopold lens is a moot point. The building was neither designed with Leopold's philosophy in mind, nor his name attached. The real question should be how can we now make it "greener" and in the process support and promote the concept of the Land Ethic? Can we do pine and prairie plantings on the site? Can we utilize the building space occasionally to host Leopold events and speakers? Can we teach kids to be members of the natural biota rather than lords over it? The Leopold Heritage Group and other Aldo proponents need to get behind the teaching and learning opportunities this naming creates, rather than debating whether the new building is "Aldo enough" to suit them.
ReplyDeleteLaVon Worley