August 21, 2008
TECHNOS QUARTERLY Summer 1993 Vol. 2 No. 2
Marva Collins, Her Way
By Toni O'Neal Mosley
How noble in reason! How infinite in faculty!
In form, and moving, how express and admirable!
In action how like an angel!
In apprehension how like a god!
The beauty of the world! The paragon of animals!
—Hamlet, Act II, Scene 2
In Hamlet, Shakespeare writes, “What a piece of work is a man!” Marva Collins, a recognized leader in education reform declares, “What a piece of work is a child!”
“I believe, like Pygmalion, I have the ability to sculpt my students into what I would like them to be,” says Collins. “What a glorious and wonderful challenge! When I see the hesitant, problem students enter our school declaring to all: ‘Teach me if you dare,’ I think to myself—‘Child, what joy awaits you!’ This student does not become a problem, but a challenge. My challenge is to show this child that his days of darkness, failure, and lowered self-esteem are now over. It now becomes my chance to show this child that somewhere there is someone who cared enough to keep polishing until a luster came shining through.”
A Teacher's Odyssey
For 35 years, Collins has been sculpting, polishing her pupils—many of whom are thought to be “unteachable” and “unreachable” by teachers or parents—into eager learners and high achievers. She has accomplished this admirable feat by applying a “back-to-basics” teaching method in open classrooms where students are grouped according to levels of achievement, rather than age.
Collins began her teaching odyssey in the Chicago public school system. “When I worked in Chicago public schools,” she recalls, “I often heard teachers say, ‘I am so sick of these children.’ When one takes this kind of attitude, it, of course, rubs off on the children. If [teachers] are not excited about what we do, children can sense this.”
In 1975, after 14 years of service in Chicago's schools, Collins was so dismayed with the teaching methods and teachers' attitudes that she started her own school, Westside Preparatory School. She opened it in her home with $5,000 from her pension fund and only six students, including two of her own three children. Westside now has 120 students in grades K–8, five full-time teachers, and several assistants.
Collins has since opened two more schools. In October 1990, a second school was opened in the Cincinnati area. Now in its third year, Marva Collins Preparatory School in Silverton, Ohio, has more than doubled its enrollment (from 43 to 116), tripled its teaching staff (from two to six teachers), and added seventh- and eighth-grade instruction and a science lab (provided through a grant from the Jergens Foundation) to its original preschool through sixth-grade program. The school, which has outgrown its temporary housing in Olivet Baptist Church, has an aggressive goal of raising $500,000 to buy a permanent home.
In January 1992, Collins' third school was opened on Chicago's south side. There are three classes for a maximum of 100 students at the elementary level and 20 ninth-grade students at Marva Collins Preparatory School. There are plans to open a fourth school in the University Park area of Chicago.
Basics vs. ‘Frills’
Visitors to these schools are awed by first graders learning the metric system and geometry; second graders involved in astronomy; fourth graders reading flight schedules; fifth graders studying Latin; and sixth graders reading Nietzsche, Voltaire, Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Tolstoy. Reading is one of the basics in Collins' approach.
“Children today do not know what continent they live on and cannot name the five Great Lakes because we gave them more and more pictures in their textbooks and less text,” she says. “In other words, we have been labeled educationally ‘A Nation At Risk’ with 23 million illiterates and 35 million functional illiterates, and two million illiterates added to this dismal figure each year.”
For that reason, Collins is strict about computer use in the classroom. Only those students who have mastered their basic skills are exposed to computer technology. Although Westside has several computers donated by IBM for office and classroom use, Collins contends, “On the kind of budget we have, and with our philosophy, we do not need what might be called ‘teaching frills’—things like film projectors, teaching machines, calculators for the children, and the like. We deal in the basics.” That includes helping the students develop communication and problem-solving skills.
Though children are exposed to technology (a biology software program is used with four- and five-year-olds, for instance), it is secondary to other lessons. “I think what most of us fail to understand is there are steps in life,” Collins explains. “We try to teach children that you cannot skip from step 1 to step 10. If children can't think, read, write, and compute, they cannot adapt technologically. It is just plain common sense.”
“Computers are tools to be used in the pursuit of knowledge and the processing of information. Nothing more, nothing less. If children have the wrong map of life, all of the technological skills in the world won't do them any good. Computer skills do not guarantee one a job. For instance, if you can't get to work on time, you aren't going to stay there anyway, even if you are very good at what you do. And I think that's where we have been misled.”
According to recent data, schools in economically disadvantaged areas or with majority African-American student enrollment have fewer computers than other schools, which means these students are unlikely to have any meaningful training in computer skills. Although Collins admits students benefit from any and all exposure to advanced technology, she maintains that exposure without adequate instruction and basic curriculum is meaningless. “First of all, I think children should know how to spell ‘computer’,” she says. “They need to realize that somebody literate knew how to program that computer.”
Collins is convinced that the trend toward moving students into more and more technologically advanced instruction also can do more harm than good. “If we have an illiterate population, we constantly become users, but we can't be creators,” she explains. “If we can't create, we can't distribute. And if we cannot distribute, we are not going to be fulfilled. That's what's so ironic. I think that's why a lot of major companies are struggling. Much of the work force is illiterate or functionally illiterate. How can [America] expect to keep up in a technologically advanced arena without being able to read?”
In addition, Collins thinks that more emphasis on moral values and less on computers and other “teaching frills” in the classroom more likely will help students adapt and be successful in the real world. In a column published in the June 18, 1990 issue of the Cincinnati Enquirer, Collins calls for “a return to moral values” to regain and strengthen the integrity of education in America. She states, “There was a time in American schools when virtue occupied center stage….The large objective of schools was to train the moral character and nourish the souls of the students…. Our textbooks and curricula allowed our children to develop their own feelings, their own ideas, their own morality.”
In her article, Collins calls for a return to the use of syllogistic reasoning, which has all but been eliminated in U.S. schools. She believes that educated people can solve problems through their “perceptive, intelligent, sensitive responses”—and thus help their communities and the world become peaceful places. In fact, she says the goal of world peace “is perhaps the most important and least acknowledged goal of education.”
Breaking The Cycle
More important than what Collins teaches and why, is how she teaches. Again, her philosophy is simple and direct—a positive learning environment reaps positive results; therefore, positive reinforcement is the backbone of her teaching method. “Our method is nothing less than the ‘Three Rs’ mixed with a total program that teaches every child that he is unique, special, and bright and that we will not let him fail,” says Collins. “We have no monopoly on excellence. We simply do not buy into the idea that poor, inner-city children cannot achieve. We expect universal standards from our children. We teach them to read, write, compute, and to think critically and analytically.”
Many of her students are from the inner-city and have economically disadvantaged backgrounds. Most have been problems for either their parents or their schools, usually both. Collins feels it's not the children who are poor students because of their situations, but it is poor teachers who are keeping these students from realizing their fullest potential. “All across the country, poor teachers are screaming and yelling, and students are often screaming back or turning off. Good teachers have exciting classrooms where children are learning—the same kind of ambience we have in our classrooms. Good teachers are always looking for answers to problems; poor teachers make excuses for why children aren't learning.”
Marva
Collins' philosophy is summed up in her promise to her students: “I will
not let you fail.”
“If teachers believe that children can't learn, those students, of course, will not learn. If teachers believe that the kind of home a student comes from has anything to do with what that child can achieve, then, of course, the curriculum becomes watered down and it becomes an impossible feat for the child to learn. I take the position that the more fetid a home environment might be, the harder a teacher must work to break that self-perpetuating cycle.”
Collins' philosophy on breaking this cycle is the real key to her success with most students. By creating and reinforcing a totally positive learning environment, she manages to break down many of the barriers students carry with them that prevent them from learning. The words “fail” and “can't” are strictly forbidden in her schools' classrooms. “I tell the teachers that if a student does not sit still, the teacher is responsible for finding out why. Maybe the ‘oven is too hot’ and we need to make it more comfortable. Or, maybe we need to look at the way the teacher is presenting something. We will not accept failure; there is always a reason why a student is not succeeding.”
Individual attention and positive reinforcement are the norm for every student. “We always find something positive or complimentary to say to each child every morning,” says Collins. “This is just as important as a curriculum.” She believes these methods are even more critical with her students because inner-city students traditionally have been the targets of harsh and unfair stereotypical labeling. They are considered troublemakers, with little ability or desire to learn. Collins sees in these children—particularly black males—what Michelangelo perceived in a piece of marble, “an angel trying to get out.” She says, “There is a lot of toughness and tough talk on the street and in the school, but inside is a child who wants to be accepted, a child who wants to succeed.”
Even students who are considered to be potential problems are treated with respect and challenged with the same high expectations as all other students. Rather than ignore these children as some teachers might, Collins will stand right behind a misbehaving child, place her hand on his or her shoulder, and speak directly to the child. “Sometimes I will actually do their work for them, just to give them a taste of success,” she adds. Collins also says the pressure to “perform” for peer acknowledgment and acceptance is deflated when there is no audience. In her schools, students are expected to continue their work as if nothing out of the ordinary had occurred when a child misbehaves.
Parents and Teachers
Getting parents to take a more active role in the day-to-day education of their children is a universal problem in the education community, but it is a challenge Collins takes in stride. Parents of enrolled students are encouraged to be active partners in their children's education and are welcome as visitors and volunteers in the classroom. Collins also offers special classes and workshops to help parents adapt her teaching methods for home use.
“Children are composites of their parents' habits,” she says. “We tend to ignore that children learn habits—good and bad—from their parents. That's why we try to work with parents, have classes and workshops. We encourage them to visit classes and volunteer their time. It doesn't do any good to teach a child one thing here, and then they go home and see something else there. Parents are encouraged by the positive affirmations they witness at the school. But getting parents to change their habits—that is the biggest problem.”
Adopting Collins' techniques at home may prove easier than translating some of her techniques and philosophies to the classroom. She relies heavily on Bible passages, and her students wear uniforms. Some teachers and administrators still are not convinced that the cure for what ails the American public school system can be found in the form of such a simple philosophy. Collins believes there is a tendency to reject arbitrarily some methods of teaching, just because they are old-fashioned. “The fact is, a teacher can combine both progressive and traditional approaches to learning, each enhancing the other,” she says. “There is no reason why a teacher can't be sensitive to a child's needs and at the same time teach the child subject matter and skills. That blend has always been the basis of Westside Preparatory School.”
Even in teacher training, the emphasis is on the basics—positive reinforcement and motivation. Collins has trained more than 7,000 teachers across the country in her teaching methods, many through a program started in 1991 in the state of Oklahoma. Twenty-five Oklahoma public schools were chosen from a pool of 65 applicants by a six-member state Department of Education committee. Eight of the schools were considered “at-risk” city schools, with student test scores in one or more grades in the bottom 25 percent on state-mandated achievement examinations. The schools participated in the pilot of an improvement program sponsored by Marva Collins and underwritten by a foundation established by Ponca City, Oklahoma, businessman Charles E. Hollar. The tuition for the program, called “Prepping for Power,” totaled $5,000 per enrolled teacher and was raised through private and corporate donations.
For three weeks, more than 300 teachers were invited to watch as 37 students ages 6 to 11 years were exposed to Collins' “back-to-basics” approach to teaching. Principals, administrators, and two teachers from each of the 25 schools took communications courses at Central State University in Edmond, Oklahoma. Training continued in Chicago, where administrators had a two-day training session and teachers attended a five-day training session with Collins at Westside. The training program culminated in a conference held in Oklahoma. Throughout the training period, teachers had access to Collins via conference calls, individual consultations, videotapes, and written materials.
Jean Faulconer served as moderator of the opening session in Oklahoma. “Host parents, some of whom had been away from parenting and homework for a few years, felt the assignments were too much, too hard. Again, it must be remembered these kids had arrived for ‘Prepping for Power,’ not [for] summer camp and beadwork,” Faulconer explains. “To some, [Collins'] methodology may have appeared harsh—over-stressing competition—but no one faulted her philosophy. And the ‘Prepping for Power’ three-week session must be kept in proper perspective. It was a specially funded, first-time, extended education laboratory meant to teach other teachers the techniques proven successful by the master teacher—as well as awaken 37 children to a passion for learning.”
Positives, Negatives
Through the years, Collins and her methods have been both praised and criticized. Despite features broadcast on several hundred radio and television programs—including “60 Minutes” and “Good Morning America”—and profiles published in national magazines like Time, Life, Newsweek, Forbes, Ebony, and Essence and in The Wall Street Journal, Collins has not been able to dodge the negative publicity that inevitably comes with being such a notable figure.
In the early 1980s, following the airing of The Marva Collins Story, a made-for-television drama, allegations began to surface that she had handpicked her students and had manipulated their test scores. Her personality was under attack. She was questioned about accepting CETA funds, though she was an outspoken critic of federal aid, and was even accused of playing into the hands of politicians who supported school funding cuts. The same newspapers that once had called her a “super-teacher” were asking her if she was a “sinister woman.”
The Wall Street Journal saw the controversy surrounding Collins as “a story about the politics of education in this country, especially education in the inner city, where the public schools have failed miserably. Mrs. Collins' private success invited reaction because it became a reproach to that failure.” The criticism—which came primarily from Chicago public school teachers, a few disgruntled parents, and one former Westside Preparatory teacher—lasted only a few weeks. Collins has never altered her path or philosophy because of it.
Even today, some teachers find her an inspirational model, while others question her motives and methods. Perhaps Civia Tamarkin, co-author with Collins of Marva Collins' Way, states it best: “For all their attempts to tear down Marva's image, her critics had never once questioned her commitment to teaching. And it was only through that commitment that she cared to be judged.” In an interview with The New York Times, Collins replies to her critics, “I've never said I was a super-teacher, a miracle worker, all those names they gave me. It's unfair to expect me to live up to it. I'm just a teacher.”
As Tamarkin found in the year she spent observing the controversial educator, the 1957 graduate of Clark College is “neither an academic, a scholar, nor the perfect grammarian.” She is a teacher—all the time, not just in the classroom. Tamarkin also discovered that the single-mindedness of purpose and method some consider obsessive and self-centered actually endears students and neighborhood children to Collins. “They saw it as a sign of her implacable devotion to them,” Tamarkin explains.
In the book's prologue, Tamarkin writes that meeting Marva reminded her of something told to her by Dr. Ralph Tyler, a former dean of social sciences at the University of Chicago: “Teaching is not just a job. It is a human service, and it must be thought of as a mission.”
“The one thing that can never be disputed,” Tamarkin declares, “is that Marva Collins motivates children and makes them want to learn and achieve.” That is a worthy mission for any educator.
Marva Collins' most recent book is “Ordinary” Children, Extraordinary Teachers, published by Hampton Roads Publishers, Norfolk, Virginia, in 1992.
Toni O'Neal Mosley is director of publications at Clark Atlanta University (formerly Clark College) and editor of Clark Atlanta Magazine. An alumna of Clark College, Mosley began her career as press secretary to U.S. Congressman Newt Gingrich in Washington, D.C. She was a writer and editor at several publications, including the Atlanta Tribune and World Wastes Magazine. Mosley is a contributing editor to UPSCALE Magazine, a national family-oriented publication targeted to the African-American consumer.
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