Profiles In Snobbery: Hingham, Mass.

Today, let's hear it for the snooty, snotty old town of Hingham. For those of you who might have missed this tremendous, late-breaking news flash from the lovely little town of 19,882, residents are up in arms and simply demanding a Special Town Meeting over the School Committee's decision to name a new elementary school after the superintendent who made it possible.

Well hold my pancakes and call me Petunia--what an earth-shattering issue! The outraged (outraged? really?) folks in Hingham have forced the town to hold a Special Town Meeting, to the tune of five to ten thousand dollars. That's right, in a day and age where budget cuts are forcing layoffs at all education levels, the upper crust in Hingham want to know that their money is well spent. The hell if they'll be sending their kids to Dorothy Galo Elementary School. No way, no how.

Hingham stinks. What kind of a Puritan, WASPy attic of a town spends thousands of dollars (which they want taken from the education budget) to debate the naming of an elementary school? Who the eff cares? It's an elementary school. The name might, just might, show up on a t-shirt. It's not like letterman jackets and diplomas will be printed with the name on it in bold.

Is it a bit weird to name a school after a living person? Sure. Is it a bit weirder for said person to be offering tours of the school? I sure think so. Should the naming have been discussed? Perhaps. Does it make a hill of beans of difference toward the quality of the education or the common good? Not one bit. Oh wah, we weren't consulted! Get over yourselves, Hinghamburgers. Taking thousands of dollars away from your children's education to air your squabbles with the education department's insulated but otherwise harmless decision is irresponsible and, frankly, childish.

You suck, Hingham. Glad I don't live there.

Editor's Note: Snobbery probably has very little to do with this story. However, I wrote the title first and the post went in a fairly different direction. Hingham really is pretty snobby, though.