August 4, 2009
Georgia Elementary School Trades One Dinosaur for Another
A bald eagle as the new mascot? From Flickr user BL 1961.
If the principal of Thomson Elementary School in Thomson, Georgia, thinks she has rid her school of dinosaurs, the joke’s on her. According to the McDuffie Mirror, principal Anita Cummings recently decided to paint over a dinosaur mural and remove dinosaur tracks from the school because:
The dinosaur does not represent what Thomson Elementary School is all about. … We are no where near extinction because we still have lots of places to go…
Instead Cummings chose the bald eagle to be the school’s mascot, but in doing so she has just traded some extinct dinosaurs for a living one. As has been said over and over again on this blog, birds are the living descendants of feathered theropod dinosaurs, and that includes eagles. A dinosaur will still be the mascot of Thomson Elementary, even if it does not look quite like its prehistoric relatives.
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Rather than viewing the dinosaur as a symbol of failure and outdatedness, principal Cummings should have recognized the dinosaur as one of evolution’s great success stories, a marvel of nature. It saddens me that *educators* are so lacking in basic understanding of the science.
What an odd reaction from the principal! She’s taken a terrific teaching springboard and replaced it with (yawn) an eagle — wonderful & fascinating creatures, but awfully common as symbols. It makes me wonder if there isn’t more to the story, e.g., it was the focus of a rift in the school between creationists and science believers. Or maybe she’s just prejudiced against dinos?
I agree that my mother didn’t have to change the mascot but she had a good point. Most dinos are big, slow, and extinct, while eagles are swift gentle birds. I couldnt see how she could battle cancer, and be a kind principal, active christian, snd a loving mother and wife all at the same time, but she does and i love her for it. -Ty Cummings
The eagle, our national bird, represents strength and bravery. Anita Cummings represents both of these traits in her own personal life. She influences so many young students daily. She is so well loved by all. If her young students follow her example, our community will proud.