Every day is a Snow day at these Midwood schools.
City officials named three area pre-Ks after a local life-long educator Joan Snow on Feb. 12. The teacher and administrator worked in New York City public schools for more than three decades before becoming a superintendent for area Catholic schools — in short, she gave her life to teaching, a daughter said.
“She was very dedicated, and the one thing that she always stressed was that every child matters,” said Mary Snow, Joan’s daughter. “She really took such pride in her job, in teaching children, and also in her staff. My entire family is so honored.”
The education maven, who died in July 2000, raised her family in the very district where she worked — and her kids Mary, Martin, James, and John grew up with an extensive extended family, one of the pedagogue’s progeny said.
“I had about 1,000 brothers and sisters,” said son Martin Snow.
Snow’s kids attended one of the centers that now bears her name — back when it was Our Lady Help of Christians School. Officials are naming the E. 29th Street school, as well as Midwood schoolhouses on Glenwood Road and Coney Island Avenue, for Snow.
Martin hoped the centers’ names would inspire a lifelong love of learning in pupils.
“Young kids are going to start off their educational lives asking who Joan Snow was,” he said. “I hope they have that same passion for knowledge, education, fairness, and learning as she did.”
