Ruby Shaw pushed for student equality
Founder of Norwalk magnet school pursued social justice
NORWALK — Shelley Shaw isn’t sure what drove her mother, Ruby, in her pursuit of social justice and equality for all her students, though she does believe it may date back to her mother’s
“We often heard (Ruby Shaw) fussing — borderline ranting — about the unfairness of itall.”
Shelly Shaw, daughter of Ruby Shaw
upbringing in Queens, N.Y., the daughter of Panamanian and Barbadian immigrants.
What she does know is that, up until her death in May, ensuring all the children she educated had a fair shot was her singular focus.
“Some of my earliest memories about her as a professional person was of her coming home and talking about this family, or that child, that wasn’t given a fair shake and how wrong that was. Whether it was they didn’t have access to information, or they were mislabeled as slow learners, or they just weren’t being given the time of day,” Shelley Shaw remembered. “We often heard her fussing — borderline ranting — about the unfairness of it all.”
Ruby Shaw died May 31 — one day after her 94th birthday. Shaw’s legacy within Norwalk Public Schools, where she was first hired as a social worker in 1962, was celebrated last week by hundreds of her former colleagues, students, family and friends at Columbus Magnet School.
It was at that school, in her role as assistant superintendent for human relations and alternative education, that she made perhaps her largest contribution to the district in 1980.
At the time, Columbus Elementary School was a neighborhood school that some in the city wanted to shutter to address issues of segregation in the school. Shaw was asked to form a committee to examine alternatives and helped to promote the move to a magnet school, which exists to this day.
“She considered it to be her signature achievement during her tenure,” Shelley Shaw said.
Shaw said her mother was a lover of books from an early age and believed firmly in the value of education. She was born in 1925 and grew up in Queens, where she earned scholarships to City University of New York's Queens College, where she graduated with a bachelor’s degree in anthropology and sociology, and Columbia University, were she got her master’s degree in social work. In 1985, she’d earn a doctorate in education administration from the University of Bridgeport.
Shaw, her husband Charles, and their three children, Shelley, Frederick and Jerome, moved to Norwalk in 1957 and settled in the economically, racially and religiously integrated Village Creek neighborhood of South Norwalk.
“She chose to live in a community that reflected her progressive values,” Shelley Shaw said.
From an early age, she impressed upon her children the importance of hard work and education. Though Shelley Shaw said she was never aware of any overt pressure put on her and her siblings by their mother, looking back, she believes there was an implicit understanding.
“I guess we knew better than to not give our best,” said Shelley Shaw, who works in human resources. Her brother, Frederick, is a pastor in New York, and Jerome is a professor emeritus at University of California Santa Cruz.
She also instilled in them her steadfast belief in justice.
“She never used the word underdog,” Shelley Shaw said, “But as we kids got older, we saw her as a champion of the underdog.”