Los Angeles Unified School District is building new schools, having finally caught on to the fact that the population boom isn't going away, particularly in the Latin community.

The names for the new schools are interesting. Remember in the days of yore when schools were named after dead presidents (Lincoln High School, Washington High School) or the streets where they were located (Liberty Blvd Elem, 9th Street School)?

Then, in the next decade, schools were being named after prominent, but living, celebrities or local personages, such as Cisneros Learning Academy (no longer mere high schools) or Solis Learning Academy.

Hispanic influence is obvious: Camino Nuevo Academy, Sotomayor Learning Academy. I guess the word School is unfashionable, declasse.

And my favorite names of all are the ones that purportedly speak to goals and standards:

Aspire Learning Academy,
Synergy Kinetic Academy (do you want kinetic learning?),
Synergy Quantum Academy (*quantum?),
Health/Sports Medical Magnet (ride the wave of sports madness),
Animo Charter Middle School (I thought it said Anime at first),
Acad Semillas Pueblo,
Academia Moderna,
Futuro College Prep (elementary level),
Full Circle Learning Academy.

*Normally, quanta are considered to be discrete packets with energy stored in them--a way of characterizing students, I suppose .

Who are they trying to bamboozle? A school flaunting an egregious appellation by any other name is still a school.