Education reform advocate Jay P. Greene has complained about organization names that “often look like lyrics from an old Prince album” (Pre-K 4 SA, anyone? P16Plus?) or “are just an alphabet soup, randomly spelling words, acronyms, or just jargony gibberish.” “The Banality of School Reform Org Names”, Jay P. Greene’s blog, June 19, 2012. Citing the examples of KIPP and YES Prep, among others, Greene says, “Charter schools are awash in these power of positive thinking names.”
Now consider Prime Prep Academy, the charter school co-founded by former Dallas Cowboys player Deion Sanders. His recent comments in a radio interview:
Our mascot is winning…We don’t care about mascots…Our kids are going to look good and preferably they’re going to perform good. But the best thing about it is they’re going to be educated.
“Deion Sanders: Prime Prep’s football team mascot is ‘winning’”, SportsDayHS blog at Dallas Morning News, August 8, 2012; “Deion Sanders names absurd new mascot for his school: ‘Winning'”, Cameron Smith, Prep Rally blog at Yahoo! Sports, August 14, 2012. Despite these antics, Sanders seems genuinely committed to helping Prime Prep succeed academically. “Deion Sanders Shows Future Prime Prep Academy Campus”, Giselle Phelps, KDAF-33, October 17, 2011.
Fortunately, San Antonio once again benefits from the quiet, reserved leadership of David Robinson, a.k.a. “The Admiral”, the legendary #50 of the San Antonio Spurs. The players at his charter school, IDEA Carver, are simply the Cougars.
