Demolishing traditions

The following letter to the editor appeared in the Potomac Almanac, March 16-22, 2005:

Being from England where my 'old' school is ocming up to its 500th anniversary and my Oxford College is having its 450th year, I have a problem with my kids' school, Seven Locks Elementary School, being 'replaced' after a mere 40 years.

Apart from issues of the inconvenience of refurbishment (perish the thought), the main rationale given by the Board of Education on March 8 was that building a new school would be cheaper than refurbishing the old. On that basis, why don't we knock down everything whose replacement would be cheaper?

That way, we will have no real traditions, and no one will be able to show their children where they went to school. What a bequest to future generations!