Blame anyone but yourself !!!!!

[UlsterExile]

Not the most trustworthy of tabloids, but Blaming a VC winner for their own failure. Words fail me for the idiot who even suggested this. The teachers and pupils should take a very small leaf out of Lance Sgt Baskeyfield VC book and have some moral courage to realise that it's they who have let him down.http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...i-tanks-trustees-want-end-legacy-failure.html

 

[muttywhitedog]

Very disappointing.

I was a member of the governing body at the Douglas Bader Primary School, RAF Coltishall, until its closure in 2005. The school was being transformed into a centre for children with learning difficulties. We proposed to Norfolk County Council that it should retain the name in recognition of the links with RAF Coltishall, and also that Douglas Bader overcame huge difficulties to become the person he was remembered.

NCC literally bit our hands off.

http://www.theshortstayschoolfornorfolk.co.uk/schools/the-douglas-bader-school/

 

[UlsterExile]

It seems that people don't want to face the problem head on. But just brush it under the carpet. My old WO used to have a saying you can polish a turd as much as you want but it's still a turd.

 

[Roobarb]

Unfortunately, there is a mindset out there that simply changing the name of an organisation will convince the world that all is new and improved whilst it is exactly the same as before. People still talk of British Rail.

Slightly off topic anecdote: just before one of the frequent company name changes I was talking to a spotty graduate in the pub about his meteoric rise to become bag carrier for the HR manager. SG asked me what they could do to make me feel enthusiastic about the new company. I replied “nothing, but it will at least give me a dribble of confidence that you have thought about it if a few things happen on day 1. When I get to the same desk in the same building I would like a box of business cards carrying the new name to be there, as it looks crap handing old cards out to clients with the old name scratched out. Same with letterheads if I have to write to a client, brochures or document templates. In fact anything that goes outside should look professional and competent, not drawn up as an afterthought.” “Oh” says SG, “we have some nice new mugs for your coffee break…”

 

[Gord]

Exactly, if there is a legacy of failure then it is the failure of the teachers and the system they had in place at the school and this will not change with a simple name change. To continue with the same system and expect different results is ludicrous so they had better make some drastic changes other than simply remove the name of a hero from the front door. Arnhem may have been a failure in the fact that the bridges were not captured at the cost of so many men but those men were not failures, they did their utmost to achieve an impossible goal set down by people who were obviously ignorant of the enemy that these brave lads would have to face.

 

[Ex-Bay]

I think that it's not the failure of Arnhem, or a lack of respect for the dead heroes, but the lingering taint of the name at a place which failed.
Fortunately, that hero is remembered, nay - honoured - elsewhere.
May he Rest in Peace.