ROSES to the Chapel Hill-Carrboro school board, which appears to be prepared to name the new elementary school after the former school that stood near the site.

Morris Grove was the name of the school that once operated there, off Eubanks Road; the little building still stands, but the school itself is long gone. A former slave named Morris Grove wanted the children living in that part of the county to have the opportunity for education, and he put forth his own land and money to build the school in the late 1800s. Generations of black children from the farms in the area attended school there.

Some of those former students, now in their 60s and 70s, still live in the area. They remember walking through the woods to the school, helping the teachers light the wood stove for heat, playing catch with fruit they picked from nearby trees.

The new school -- spacious and modern -- is a far cry from the original ramshackle Morris Grove Elementary School. But in taking on the former school's name, the new one would serve as a link to an important if little-known part of our past.

Those ties are being lost much too rapidly, buried under the tide of the new. Naming the new school for the old one would be way to maintain a handhold to who we were and where we came from. That may not be on anybody's end-of-grade test, but it's an important lesson nonetheless.


ROSES to several students from our area who have demonstrated that the art of communication is alive and well in some of our young folks.

Yolanda Paylor of Orange High School won the first annual speech contest sponsored by the Education Foundation for Orange County Schools.

Her address was an eloquent challenge to her fellow young people -- and the rest of us -- to resist contemporary society's emphasis on shallow and unrealistic standards of physical appearance. Focus instead, Paylor said, on the beauty within.

Chiquanna Villines was the second-place winner in the speech competition, and Amanda DelVecchia placed third.

Another recent contest, by Pozen Inc. and the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce's Foundation for a Sustainable Community, invited high school students to write essays in response to the question: "What improvements would you like to see in your community with respect to environmental stewardship, social equity and economic prosperity?"

Essay organizers were thrilled with the quality of the responses. Peter Singer was the first-place winner. Julia Ganzi and Chelsea Guild were second and third, respectively. All three attend Chapel Hill High School.


ROSES to another, younger group of students, kids in Heather Taxis' fourth-grade class at Scroggs Elementary School.

The youngsters have launched a project designed to help save the world's population of polar bears. Some scientists believe the bears face a grave threat from pollution and the decline of arctic ice due to rising global temperatures.

The kids in Taxis' Polar Bear Project have come up with dozens of ideas for raising awareness and money. They recently put one of those ideas into action, holding a polar bear benefit bake sale to raise funds.

You see a bumper sticker on occasion that says, "Think globally, act locally." Sound advice, and it's good to see a bunch of kids putting it into practice.