Why is the name of "Success Tech Academy" bothering me?

[SoCalDem]

I know that inner cities are trying to help smart kids who find themselves growing up in poor areas of cities, where a good education is their ticket out..but who names these schools?

Can you see a kid named Archibald Smyth Hartford, III listing "Success Tech Academy" on his Harvard application?

My spidey-senses always tingle when I hear these types of names being given to the schools & programs being offered to poor people (usually non-whites). It's as if, even in offering the kids a chance at a better education, they give them a "secret-coded" , on-paper hint at who they might be, when they go out into the world, and start filling out applications.

The prep schools that are commonly known as the prestige schools have names like Choate, Andover, Kent, Exeter, etc.. and the inner city schools get names like "Success Tech Academy"..

Am I being too touchy, or do others notice this too?

[UnyieldingHierophant]

1. I doubt it was named by a bunch of rich old farts as a "secret-coded" hint to keep these kids down*

[Warpy]

2. You're right about that, it's stamping "SWEATHOG"

all over their secondary education, a red flag meaning that the kid was a big problem in a traditional setting and had to be "handled."

It's downright Orwellian.

[LisaM]

3. It was a red flag for me too

Is it a charter school?

I actually saw someone on Fox Noise last night (I literally watched it for 30 seconds) say, "this is a school for kids who have potential, but who've been in trouble, strange as that seems", or some such thing.

[zonkers]

4. It is a bad name for a school, unless Success is the name of a town or sometthing.

[SoCalDem]

6. In my hometown, there was a school for the "naughty" kids

and it was called Vo-Tech.. It taught them how to fix cars, and prepeared them for the manal labor jobs they would surely end up with, and the parents insisted that it be given a real name..

Once that happened, the students "changed". I know it's just an anecdotal story, but some of those kids started filtering back into the "regular" high school, graduating and some went on to college.

Names DO mean something. If you go to a school that is only preparing you for menial labor, and it's in the NAME of the school, why would you try harder, when that school name tells a future employer that you were a screw-up who was sent away to a "special" school?

[zonkers]

9. We had the same thing in my hometown. It was called BOCES...

I just looked it up and it stands for "Board of Cooperative Educational Services". After homeroom, the thugs in the class got shipped off for technical training -- autorepair/food service.

[OzarkDem]

5. Cleveland City School District is run by African Americans

They're the ones who choose the names of the schools. This one was probably started up when Barbara Byrd Bennett was in charge.

[SoCalDem]

7. Well, shame on her for not thinking that one through a little more.

:)

[OzarkDem]

8. I agree, actually

But they also probably feel the black community is tired of sending their kids to schools named after old white guys.

Some of these names are a little over the top.

[SoCalDem]

10. There is a middle ground.. Why not just Cleveland Academy?

There has to be a more "neutral" name ..

My high school was the only one in town when I went there, and as soon as the 'rich folks" got their own, they called it "South High", which forced MY old school to be re-named
North" high.. In our town the north v south was the demarcation between rich & poor..but outside of our town, it was just a delineation of geography, and odly enough "North" had a higher percentage of college-bound kids, even after the new one opened :P

[CTyankee]

11. Oh, I don't think so. Admissions office people at the Ivies know all about these schools so if it

signals anything, it signals a poor kid fighting against the odds to better him/herself. That's what the Ivies WANT! A bright kid who has demonstrated the ability to work hard against incredible hardships and do well. The Ivies love that kind of student because it enhances their reputation for being robustly into affirmative action. I see the name of the school as a big plus.

[Snarkturian Clone]

12. I work at an inner city school

with the tackiest name on the planet. It was given by our black CEO and board(charter school). I remember when they called me for the interview and I made them repeat the name 4 times because I couldn't process in my brain that a school could have such an awful name.

Some other schools here have some awful names-- all given by black founders.

The intention is definitely not to give a secret coded name as a signal to college and job recruiters-- but I wouldn't be surprised if it starts to become one to those recruiters.

[Berry Cool]

13. Although I am from the area, I cannot claim any inside knowledge about SuccessTech

but I believe it is more of what in some places would be called a "magnet" school or specialized school than a "vocational" school or a school for troubled kids. I.e., the kind of school kids have to apply to get into rather than the kind they get forced into.

As for the name, it's unfortunate, but all too typical of modern-day educational overkill. The school system I attended when young--an ordinary small-town school system--has since been consolidated into one large campus on a new road especially built for it. That road is called "Success Drive." Cheesy? You bet. And that school system is neither "inner city" nor attended by only poor or black kids.

[SoCalDem]

14. Ha-ha that reminds me.. I have friends who bought their house

when the development was just starting, and their street ended up being called "Easy Street".. another one in their development is called "Prosperity Lane"