Norma Greenberg, longtime kindergarten teacher and education innovator, has died at 95

Norma Greenberg, 95, of Lower Merion, longtime kindergarten teacher at Penn Valley Elementary School, founder of Project CHANGE in the Lower Merion School District, and education innovator, died Monday, Aug. 21, of frailty syndrome at her daughter’s home in Chestnut Hill.

Mrs. Greenberg grew up in Lambertville and turned what her family called a lifelong “openness and playfulness” into an education career that spanned nearly five decades in four schools and touched countless young lives. From the early 1950s through her retirement in 1998, Mrs. Greenberg taught 5- and 6-year-olds about turtles, the alphabet, Valentine’s Day, and other important stuff in South Philadelphia, and at Penn Valley and Cynwyd Elementary Schools in Lower Merion.

She spent precious time as a girl on a farm in New Jersey, and her classrooms later were filled with live turtles, hatching chicks, and lots of talk about nature and the environment. She mentored retired seniors in a classroom volunteer program for years in Lower Merion, and the school district presents an annual achievement award to its volunteers in her honor.

She told The Inquirer in a 1983 article about the program that she could tell right away if a volunteer would be good with children. “It’s the feeling, the sensitivity,” she said. “No college degree can teach that.”

She was also a teacher and director of Temple Beth Hillel’s nursery school in Wynnewood. She developed Project CHANGE (Children Helping and Nurturing Growth in the Environment) in the early 2000s so Lower Merion students could understand the nature of change, examine the environment, and appreciate the arts.

She stressed citizenship and creativity to her students, and modeled humility and pragmatism. Children, she said in 1983, need attention as well as education. “One of the most important things is for a child to know somebody cares about them. … The children. They always come first,” she said.

Mrs. Greenberg became a classroom volunteer herself in retirement, and thousands of students over the years heard her constant refrain: “You have to T-R-Y.” Her granddaughter Maggie McNulty said: “She was so generous. She had so much love to give.”

Born May 16, 1928, Norma Kaplan lived above her father’s butcher shop in Lambertville and immersed herself in the natural wonderland she found on her family’s farm. She played basketball at Lambertville High School even though she was shorter than everyone else, and her granddaughter Morgan Levy said: “She told us that made her ‘think big.’”

She was interested early in medicine, education, and helping people. She attended New York University and earned a bachelor’s degree in 1950 at the University of Michigan, and a master’s degree in early education at Beaver College, now Arcadia University.

She met Milton Greenberg at a social event, and they married in 1950, and had son Richard and daughter Lynn. He died earlier, and she married Jack Schlossberg. He also died earlier.

Later, she became especially close to her granddaughters Morgan, Kelsey, and Maggie, and grandsons Jordan and Joshua.

She liked to garden, visit museums, and do arts and crafts with her grandchildren. She was always up for an air hockey game with them, too. “She wanted to meet kids where they were,” Levy said.

She invited her grandchildren to help out with school projects and was delighted when former students, and there were many, greeted her around town. She had a sweet tooth and soft spot for chocolate, carrot cake, and French toast.

She was witty, liked to play funny pranks on occasion, and smiled for almost every photo. Her most memorable advice was: “Be loving.”

She even organized a 70th birthday party for one of her classroom volunteers. “She was so resilient,” Levy said. “She exuded so much warmth and kindness.”

In a tribute, her family said she “was known for her passion, sensitivity, and dedication to her students and family, her warm hugs, open mind, and attentive listening.”

In addition to her children and grandchildren, Mrs. Greenberg is survived by other relatives. A sister died earlier.

Private services were held earlier.