Centaur, the Horace Mann Mascot

Horace Mann was an educational reformer and abolitionist, and he also served for a while as president of Antioch College in Ohio. But he’s probably best known for being a staunch proponent of public education, and that’s why there’s so many schools that are named Horace Mann Elementary or Horace Mann Junior High.

But Harlan Messenger, who listens to us in Washington, D.C., pointed out that the Horace Mann Elementary School in Washington, D.C. has as its mascot a centaur.

Oh, you got it right away. It took me forever.

All right. You have to say, if you didn’t get it, you have to say this kind of fast. Horace Mann.

Exactly. Horseman.

Exactly. So a centaur is a kind of horseman, horseman. It’s a man horse. Horseman.

And I thought this wasn’t real. Harlan thought it wasn’t real. But we checked, and apparently some students suggested that it should be horseman, and their art teacher there designed the mascot.

You can go to their website and see the horseman. That’s lovely. A little bit of a ridiculous wordplay. We like little bits of goofy wordplay like that. Historical or modern, send them along. Words at waywordradio.org.