How do I feel about it? Actually, I think it's a good idea, but only if it is handled properly. Otherwise it is just lip service to pacify the people (like me) who were unhappy that the name was abandoned in the first place.
I'm sure the Admiral King historical marker currently at the high school will be relocated to the new school, and maybe even the anchor, but that is not enough. The school system needs to make it a point to properly educate the young students as to who Admiral Ernest J. King was, what he accomplished, and why their school is named after him. There needs to be a well thought out permanent display in the lobby, and maybe even an annual day where he is officially remembered.
The elementary school is to be built on the site of the former Lorain High School, the high school that King attended, and it is only a short walk to his birthplace on Hamilton. So there is ample opportunity to creatively make Ernest J. King a real person that the students can relate to and look up to.
By doing all of this, a sense of pride would be instilled in the young students, and they would learn that it is possible to set a goal and reach it through tenacity and hard work.
The Admiral Ernest J. King Elementary School principal, whoever it is, needs to buy into this line of thinking; no anti-war types need apply! You can't teach kids why Admiral King was important unless you accept the fact that we were at war, and fighting to save the world.
Now, the only problem that remains is: what about the unhappy Irving alumni? Here we go again! (Don't laugh; my mother is a self-proclaimed "Irving snot!")
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To read an interesting history of how the Lorain schools were named, written by Lorain School Board member James Smith, click here. (By the way, this article also contains the original 2004 plan for the upgrading of Lorain's schools, in which Admiral King High School and Masson Elementary were to be only renovated.)
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