Friday February 3, 2012
Mary C. Snow was an amazing educator
What she created at Glenwood was astonishing
I support the name change for the new elementary school on the West Side.
I was a student of Mrs. Mary C. Snow for seven years at Glenwood Elementary and can honestly speak to her perfection as an elementary school principal.
She kept an incredible team of teachers in the years I was there, and knew all of us children so well as an active participant in our lives.
To think of the racial tension in the city of Charleston that has persisted over the years, I am still astonished at the atmosphere Mrs. Snow was able to create at Glenwood, where white and black children went to school and learned so much from black and white teachers with her loving support.
As I went on to Lincoln Junior High School, I became more aware of the distrust and animosity that festered along racial lines. That social disease, racism, is able to grow in the absence of wisdom and love.
It's no surprise that we didn't have that problem at Glenwood. Under Snow's leadership Glenwood was truly the embodiment of Dr. King's dream, and that was in the 1970s and 1980s.
These days, administrators escape accountability as teachers, schools, children and communities are labeled as failures. Glenwood was a symbol of pride in our neighborhood, and Snow was without question our mother.
She frequently observed even the most experienced teachers in the school. Her office was not where you ever wanted to be, but after school she was a fixture at the front door giving the daily goodbye hugs.
Beyond the walls of Glenwood, her service to the city and community is well known.
Now that we are all grown up, we laugh at how she could bring an entire cafeteria to a deafening silence by simply raising her hand, or at the fear we experienced as we waited to enter her office.
All joking aside, her greatest attribute as a leader was that she passionately led by example.
I support the name change for the new elementary school on the West Side.
I was a student of Mrs. Mary C. Snow for seven years at Glenwood Elementary and can honestly speak to her perfection as an elementary school principal.
She kept an incredible team of teachers in the years I was there, and knew all of us children so well as an active participant in our lives.
To think of the racial tension in the city of Charleston that has persisted over the years, I am still astonished at the atmosphere Mrs. Snow was able to create at Glenwood, where white and black children went to school and learned so much from black and white teachers with her loving support.
As I went on to Lincoln Junior High School, I became more aware of the distrust and animosity that festered along racial lines. That social disease, racism, is able to grow in the absence of wisdom and love.
It's no surprise that we didn't have that problem at Glenwood. Under Snow's leadership Glenwood was truly the embodiment of Dr. King's dream, and that was in the 1970s and 1980s.
These days, administrators escape accountability as teachers, schools, children and communities are labeled as failures. Glenwood was a symbol of pride in our neighborhood, and Snow was without question our mother.
She frequently observed even the most experienced teachers in the school. Her office was not where you ever wanted to be, but after school she was a fixture at the front door giving the daily goodbye hugs.
Beyond the walls of Glenwood, her service to the city and community is well known.
Now that we are all grown up, we laugh at how she could bring an entire cafeteria to a deafening silence by simply raising her hand, or at the fear we experienced as we waited to enter her office.
All joking aside, her greatest attribute as a leader was that she passionately led by example.
It's true, her accomplishments as the first African-American principal of an integrated school are historic and very meaningful to the West Side of Charleston.
But if you really want to know what was so special about Mrs. Mary Snow, you just had to be there.
I can tell you this: It is because of her and members of the amazing team she assembled that many of us went on to become teachers.
There is no greater name than Mary C. Snow in the world of education. It would be my greatest honor to come home and teach in the school named after my hero.
Please, rename the school in honor of the way she transformed our lives and community.
David B. Scott
St. Louis, Mo.
Scott teaches music at Lift for Life Academy, St. Louis, Mo. He graduated from Glenwood in 1985.
