New Yorker Judy Schwartz 2007

Dr. Judy SchwartzElementary & Early Childhood Education

Dr. Judy Schwartz, recently retired faculty member in EECE at Queens College, died on August 16, 2007 in New York.

Dr. Schwartz joined the faculty after receiving a doctorate in Early Childhood Education at New York University in 1970.

The author of numerous articles and research studies in the field, she was also the author of Encouraging Early Literacy-An Integrated Approach to Reading and Writing in N-3, published by Heineman Books.

Elementary & Early Childhood EducationQueens CollegeSilhouette 1998 -60th Anniversary Edition

LONG BEFORE COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES FOCUSED ON “CENTERS OF EXCELLENCE” THERE WERE INDIVIDUAL

TEACHERS AND PROFESSORS WHO SOUGHT OUT THE BEST….IN THEMSELVES, IN THEIR STUDENTS, IN THEIR COURSE CURRICULA, AND IN THEIR RESEARCH. AND USUALLY, THESE PERSONS ALSO SOUGHT OUT THE BEST IN EVERYTHING THEY DID IN LIFE.

I KNEW JUDY SCHWARTZ ALMOST ALL OF MY TEACHING CAREER. SHE FINISHED UP HER DOCTORAL STUDIES AT NYU JUST AS

EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION WAS CAPTURING THE ATTENTION OF EVERYONE

IN AMERICA…IT WAS THE TIME OF THE BEGINNING OF HEAD START AND SESAME

STREET. AND SHE JOINED THE FACULTY AT QUEENS COLLEGE ALMOST THE SAME TIME

AS WHEN I ARRIVED ON THE CAMPUS.

This is the campus that former president Shirley Kenney called the jewel of the City University of New York and the secret of the jewels was in the people who worked there – faculty and staff. This is also the Queens College that has just been rated by Newsweek or one of the other news magazines as one of the “hottest campuses” in America.

OVER THE YEARS JUDY TAUGHT GRADUATE AND UNDERGRADUATE COURSES IN THE AREAS OF RESEARCH, LITERACY, LANGUAGE ARTS, AND LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT AND SUPERVISED

STUDENT TEACHERS INVOLVED IN PRESCHOOL EDUCATION . JUDY ALSO PUBLISHED MANY

ARTICLES IN THE AREAS OF EARLY LANGUAGE DEVELOPMENT AND LITERACY.

Even when I would go to City Hall as Acting Dean to lobby for funding I would run into someone who had been in class with one of these faculty members and who had remarkable stories to tell of how those experiences had impacted their lives and careers.

One of my first assignments at QC was to help with a research project for the Early Childhood group.

So I immediately got to know Lucile Lindberg, Mary Moffett, Lucile Perryman, Rita Swedlow, Thelma Adair, Sydney Schwartz, Betsy Brown, Johanna Mott, Mildred Hardeman, Linda Gibson, Ann Okongwu, Shiela Mahoney , Andrea Pack, and many others, who were part of the Early Childhood group over the years .

A GREAT PROPORTION OF THE TEACHERS CURRENTLY TEACHING IN NEW YORK CITYPRE-SCHOOL - K – 6 SCHOOLS HAVE BEEN

EDUCATED BY THE QUEENS COLLEGE EARLY CHILDHOOD FACULTY OVER THE LAST 30+ YEARS

THIS IS THE EC FACULTY OF WHAT HAS BEEN KNOW FOR A LONG, LONG TIME AS EECE AT QC –

THE DEPT. OF ELEMENTARY AND EARLY CHILDHOOD EDUCATION.

This year when there are once again debate s about all-day Kindergarten and funding for it, I think of all these folks who were advocates for early education.

I think of all the furniture I had helped Judy and Johanna and Sydney and Betsy and many others over the years in early childhood settings move around in schools to create learning centers.

AND AS I LOOK OUT THE WINDOW THIS MORNING WHILE I AM WRITING THIS AND SEE THE YOUNG KIDS WITH THEIR BACKPACKS WALKING TO THE BUS STOP, I THINK OF ALL THE VIDEO CAMERAS

THAT HAD BEEN CARRIED FROM THE QC CAMPUS TO SCHOOL SITES TO FILM WHAT EARLY

EDUCATION WAS ALL ABOUT.

AND I THINK OF HOW MUCH THE PASSING OF ONE OF THESE EARLY CHILDHOOD ADVOCATES LEAVES A

HUGE ROLE TO BE FILLED IN THE FUTURE.

Over the years there was an interesting mix in EECE of native New Yorkers and faculty who came to New York from all over the country to study at Columbia University’s Teacher College and New York University and Bank Street College of Education and stayed on in New York to teach at the college level.

JUDY WAS FIRST AND FOREMOST A TEACHER. BUT SHE WAS ALSO A WRITER. I

NOTICED ON THE HEINEMAN BOOK LIST RECENTLY THIS VOLUME BY JUDY SCHWARTZ:

ENCOURAGING EARLY LITERACY - AN INTEGRATED APPROACH TO READING AND WRITING IN N-3.

Judy as author

Judy's book - Encouraging Early Literacy

COLLABORATION WAS A HALLMARK OF THE EECE FACULTY. WE SHARED OFFICES,

PLANNED CURRICULA TOGETHER, DID TEAM TEACHING, WORKED ON RESEARCH PROJECTS TOGETHER. SO NOW YEARS LATER, LIKE THE DOTS IN A SEURAT PAINTING, MANY OF THE DOTS THAT MAKE UP THE PICTURE OF MY OWN LIFE WERE ONES CONTRIBUTED BY

EECE COLLEAGUES. CERTAINLY THAT WAS TRUE OF JUDY SCHWARTZ.

New York (Bronx) Botanical Garden

I remember being invited to Judy’s home years ago and meeting her mother and learning of her love for animals and plants. An early formative experience for her was her father taking her regularly to the Bronx Botanical Gardens.

Over the years, Judy would remind me to watch the annual dog show in New York and give me the rundown on all the details of each breed.

When one of her dogs died Judy asked me to travel with her to New Jersey or Pennsylvania to visit two people who ran an industrial test kitchen and raised Yorkies. I was almost seasick viewing the dozens of jumping dogs when we were escorted out to pick out a new Yorkie.

It was an adventure for sure. I finally got enough shots in between ducking to fill the magazine requirements.

Judy also loved birds. She had any number of exotic parrots and birds. Once she asked if I would come to her home and take photographs of the birds to accompany a magazine article she had been asked to write. But she did not tell me the birds would be flying around, instead of in their cages.

When I was in California on sabbatical in the late 1970s, Judy came out and asked me to take her to visit a place in the Los Angeles area where rare orchids were grown.

This too became a memorable trip. The layout was almost that of a medical research laboratory.

And, of course, since the samplings were so very small much of the wonder I am sure was lost on me. I gave up biology as a major in college when it became clear that I would have to take a lot of botany.

Judy recognized the orchids like old friends.

JUDY COULD PERCEIVE EXCELLENCE IN THE DOGS, IN THE BIRDS, AND IN THE PLANTS. I SEEMED TO BE FROM ANOTHER PLANET. I

JUST DIDN’T TAKE IN THAT KIND OF DETAIL. BUT THERE WERE OTHER AREAS OF INTEREST

FOR JUDY AS WELL.

Judy had very definitive interests when it came to music. Over the years she would call to tell me about a newly discovered artist. I would quickly jot a few notes and look up the items.

Steely Dan is one I remember from a long, long time ago. But there were many others. And since I had been exposed to a wide range of music as a teenager and young adult in the South…

…classical music of every variety, country music, the blues of Memphis, spirituals heard sung by the Fisk Jubilee Singers, blue grass music, gospel songs, and JAZZ…..

plus everything else that New York could provide….Broadway show tunes, rock and roll, organ music at the Riverside Church, and the various string instruments of Julliard…and still, it was amazing that Judy would come up with music that didn’t even fit easily into any these categories and that I had never heard of.

We went numerous times to The Village to hear Alberta Hunter sing. Wanting to sit very close to the singer, we would be there for her arrival. You could see her coming in carrying a shopping bag, and then having a snack before singing. Judy never wanted to leave until the very last end of her evening’s performance.

Judy once asked me to drive her out to Long Beach on Long Island, where she had spent a good part of her childhood. We drove up and down the side streets adjacent to the beach and the boardwalk. Over the years I thought perhaps the rarely expressed spiritual longings and searchings came from having spent so much time near the ocean. When you are at the edge of a continent, there is that pull…I know it from time spent on the coast of Maine or the Puget Sound.

IN MANY WAYS, JUDY WAS A CLASSIC NEW YORKER. IN THAT REGARD SHE CONTRIBUTED TO MY UNDERSTAND

OF MANY OF MY STUDENTS …STUDENTS WHO HAD GONE TO YESHIVAS AND ARRIVED AT COLLEGE FOR

THE FIRST TIME TO MIX AND MINGLE WITH STUDENTS FROM OTHER CULTURAL AND RELIGIOUS

BACKGROUNDS.

OTHER STUDENTS MIGHT HAVE GONE TO CATHOLIC PAROCHIAL SCHOOL OR ATTENDED PUBLIC SCHOOL

BUT WHOSE LIVES WERE SHAPED BY THEIR EVANGELICAL CHURCHES AND FAMILIES. AND THERE

WERE MUSLIM AND HINDU STUDENTS AND OTHER STUDENTS WHOSE NATIVE LANGUAGES WERE NOT

ENGLISH BUT HAD ARRIVED FROM ONE OR ANOTHER OF THE S. AMERICAN COUNTRIES.

Judy also read widely. I don’t think she could have had all these interests and had time to read the volume of magazines and books that I did regularly over the years. But she would come up with books to recommend that would somehow have escaped my thorough cruising thru Borders or Barnes & Noble, volumes that might have escape notice in the The Sunday New York Times Book Review section. One of the last volumes she insisted that I get and read was The Places in Between by Rory Stewart.

THE ONLY AREA WHERE I COULD CONTRIBUTE TO JUDY’S LIFE THAT SHE WAS NOT ALREADY WAY AHEAD

OF ME WAS IN TERMS OF COMPUTERS AND TECHNOLOGY. SHE ASKED FOR HELP WHEN

COMPUTERS FIRST BECAME A TEACHING – LEARNING TOOL AND SHE CALLED OVER THE YEARS FROM NEW

YORK AND DID NOT HESITATE TO ASK FOR HELP WHEN SHE NEEDED IT. AND SHE WOULD SOMETIMES ASK

ABOUT OTHER THINGS TECHNOLOGICAL. SHE RECENTLY CALLED AND ASKED FOR

RECOMMENDATIONS ON THE THIN LCD TVS THAT YOU COULD HANG ON YOUR WALL AND FREE UP SPACE FOR OTHER THINGS. SHE GOT THE NEW TV AND WAS ALSO

AMAZED AND APPRECIATIVE OF THE EXCELLENT PICTURE QUALITY….

Some people might be surprised to learn that Judy served on the Board for her homeowners Coop building in Forest Hills. This is a time consuming task that requires unique skills…..analyzing legal documents and budgets, drafting proposals and rules, reviewing applications and hosting inquiry sessions, and attending to the diplomacy needed to get both major and minor items of repair accomplished for the building. And I believe she served several terms on the board.

JUDY HAS NOW GONE FROM OUR SIGHT, BUT SHE WILL NOT BE ABSENT FROM OUR LIVES FOR A LONG, LONG

TIME.SHE LEAVES AS ANY NUMBER OF NEW YORK ICONS ARE PASSING. BROOKE ASTOR WILL REMAIN IN THE NEW YORK MEMORY FOR A LONG LONG TIME. ALICE PALEY

WILL NOT BE FORGOTTEN. AND IF YOU GOOGLE JUDY’S NAME YOU WILL FIND A PRESCHOOL HERE AND THERE,

A TEACHING DISCUSSION SOMEWHERE, THAT WILL QUOTE QUITE DIRECTLY,

“WELL, ACCORDING TO DR. JUDY SCHWARTZ, ……(THIS IS HOW IT IS TO BE DONE!).”

1998 Silhouette – 60th Anniversary Queens College, CUNY

Power Point Presentation

August 2007

Nancy Dill

Tucson, Arizona

Dept. Photo - 1998 Silouette – 60th Anniversary Yearbook,Queens College, CUNY

Kiely Hall photoby John Roleke, the About.com Guide for Queens, New York.

THE END