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Marva Collins' Way

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I am a classical homeschooler. The average person who asks, "How are you teaching your children at home?" has never heard of classical schooling and doesn't want a lecture. But if you say, "Like Marva Collins," their face lights up. For over 25 years Marva Collins has been the most famous teacher in America, yet not one American in a thousand can tell you what her method is called, how to find a local school that uses it, or how to teach that way at home. That disconnection sums up America's educational crisis in a nutshell.

Marva Collins was reared the only child of a wealthy African-American family in segregated Alabama. She learned early on that only three things really mattered: your knowledge, your courage and your willingness to work hard. After graduating from college with a degree in Business, she found the only jobs available at that time to college-educated African-American women were as teachers. She eventually became an elementary school teacher and honed her craft with 14 years of public school teaching.

Marva Collins didn't follow any curriculum. She asked veteran teachers what worked and tested their recommendations in her own classroom. She discarded what didn't work and kept what did work, and what worked for her students was phonics and a "Great Books" approach to learning delivered with large doses of positive reinforcement and lectures on self-reliance, a method that had been named by others "classical schooling."

By the early 1970s the veteran teachers who had trained Marva Collins were retired, and the new administration did not support her intensive learning style. In 1974 the principal abruptly took her own class away from her in the middle of the year. The parents were enraged and the principal was forced to back down, but Marva Collins knew it was time to strike out on her own.

At the urging of neighborhood mothers, Marva Collins began a private school, first in the basement of the local community college, then on the second floor of her house. She started out with a handful of students in what used to be called a one-room schoolhouse and is now called a "cottage school." After a shaky start, the school got good press and good results with their students. New students and donations poured in, and within a few years Marva Collins found herself the principal of a sizeable and highly regarded prep school.

_Marva Collins' Way_ is an inspiration to everyone, but the book has great practical value to classical teachers and homeschoolers. For all the talk about classical methodology there are very few descriptions of how classical schooling can be taught. Half this book contains detailed accounts of events in Marva Collins' classroom, making it by far the most descriptive work I've yet found about classical schooling in action.

Mrs. Collins is a devout Christian, but it might well be that nonChristian parents benefit the most from her method. While her speech to teachers in the appendix is one Biblical allusion piled on top of another, the transcripts of her daily lessons with students show that she uses a multicultural approach which treats the Bible as one Great Book among many. It has been argued that the moral principals at the heart of classical schooling can't be taught without a religious core, specifically without a Christian core. In her classrooms Marva Collins organizes her lessons and her moral principals around a core of Emersonian self-reliance, specifically Getting Out of the Ghetto, instead of a Christian theme. This method could be very helpful to secular parents who wish to use classical homeschooling but who are put off by the relentless Christian focus of much of the available material.

I can find only two criticisms with this book. While Mrs. Collins frequently castigates teachers for the failure of their students, not once in the whole book does she hold principals and the administrative staff responsible for not supporting the teachers. This glaring omission comes in spite of years of research showing that a school's success or failure is directly dependent on the quality of backup teachers receive from principals, a fact that she mentions directly in her preface and that comes through clearly in her autobiography. Decades worth of educational reform have stumbled into that blind spot and failed completely; it's past time to bring it out into the open.

The other criticism I can make about Marva Collins' way is the lack of an organized system for introducing new material. The transcripts make it clear that Mrs. Collins herself doesn't need one. Like James Burke, she is brilliant enough to make the "Connections" between just about anything and just about anything else. But how many other teachers can do likewise? Not many. When I mentioned I was reading this book, a former teacher who had done her student teaching at Marva Collins Prep School mentioned that while she saw children given lots of work she could discern no overall structure being given to them for them into which to organize the information. Perhaps one wasn't available at that time. I know the authors of the classical homeschooling manual _The Well-Trained Mind_ have put out a series of instructional materials that can be used by classical homeschoolers and classrooms; hopefully their work will begin to address that problem.

The one fact that comes through the strongest in this book is that Marva Collins is a saint. She has the stamina, the passion, the higher purpose, the total commitment and the mission of a saint determined to save the hearts and minds of her children from the corrosive effects of the ghetto. Without the vision, drive and charisma of a saint new social movements all too often fail to get off the ground. But I was also reminded of William James speaking of the difference between a saint and a philosopher. The philosopher is the person who analyzes the teaches of the saint and writes them into a creed that the ordinary person can follow. We desperately need a philosopher to analyze Mrs. Collins work and turn it into a system that any halfway competent teacher could follow, so that we can save the rest of the children caught in the maw of the "school system".

Marva Collins is a teacher to dream of becoming. She not only teaches via the lost art of classical education, but she is the rarest of classical educators; compassionate, interesting, motivating and teaching "lost" children from an inner city. Her private school is a commercial success. She even writes pretty well (certainly better than the bureaucratic double-speak that usually passes for teacher training materials).

This is a practical book. She wants us to know how to do what she does, and she's clear. Anybody who teaches children, or wants to do so, should buy this book, and read it several times a year. When you finally decide you've had it with the school district's latest insanity, you might even use her experiences to start your own school.

Classical education is a lost art. It ruled classrooms for 700 years, and then vanished, as kids taught by Deweyism and other sterile theories grew into teachers. Marva, a classical educator, tells not just what to teach, but who, how, and why. (The when and where are left to us.)

The book includes a tested, recommended reading list for children, and the list has books that dreams are made of- the book is worth it just for the reading list.

As I'm writing, the computer's offering a used copy for $0.98. What are you waiting for?

Loved the book, MARVA COLLINS' WAY by Marva Collins and
Civia Tamarkin . . . this is the inspirational story of a woman who started her own school in Chicago and made a difference in the lives of her students . . . it is a MUST READ for anybody interested in education--or, in general, having children succeed in life.

Her thinking makes so much sense . . . for instance, she tells
teachers to not mark papers with wrong answers; instead, tell
students how many they got right.

There were many memorable passages; among them:
[talking to a student] "Very good, James. You're so clever,
but I don't want to see you put your head on the desk. If you are leepy, you should be home. This is a classroom, not a hospital or a hotel. I don't ever want to see any of you napping in your seats or just sitting with your hands folded, doing nothing. This is not a prayer meeting. If I see your hands folded, I'm going to put a Bible in them."

When Tracy rummaged through her lunch sack a half hour before noon, arva reminded, "Don't worry so much about feeding your stomach. Feed your brain first and you'll always find a way to get food for your stomach."

[to a student who was erasing her wrong answer] "No, darling.
Remember, we draw a circle around the error and put the
correct answer above it. We proofread mistakes, we don't
erase them. When you erase a mistake from the paper,
you erase it from your mind, too, and you will make
the same mistake over again."

This book is sort of like a Chicken Soup for the Soul. It is filled with inspirational stories of Mrs. Collins' successes. She goes against the belief that troubled inner city black students cannot be disciplined and taught. She goes against the theory that more money will help improve inner city schools. She disagrees that public school teachers really put their students first in their lives. She is an advocate of school vouchers. One of the most respected teachers in America tells us what is wrong with our schools and proven strategies that she has used to help some of the worst kids in Chicago. Should be required reading for all teachers.

I am a student majoring in Education at Macon State College. Several students (including myself) chose to read Marva Collins' Way and present our information to the class. We thought it best to actually do a skit from the first chapter to show our fellow students just how Marva's methods of teaching got through to her students. Needless to say, we received rave reviews from our fellow students! In a nut shell, Marva's methods on teaching stem from SELF-ESTEEM. Marva builds on that and the skies the limit! Marva's teaching methods reflect so much of Emerson's Self-Reliance - it's all about the student's perception of the teacher and how that teacher views the student. If you have a chance, go online and read Self-Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson and compare it to Marva's methods. This will give you a better idea just how Marva can take negativities in students and change them into positive aspirations. Marva Collins' Way was very easy to read and had a fantastic preface. I was "sold" on the book as much as Marva's students were "sold" on learning. I thought the book put a bit too much emphasis on this being a way to teach African American children and not enough emphasis on "Returning to Excellence in Education" which is something I fell breaks through all racial barriers, yet keeps diversity intact. I would suggest this book to anyone, not just teachers, who would like to reinforce positive attitudes in children both in and out of school. With all the reference material provided at the back of the book, it is a must have!!! With positive self-esteem, anything is possible! After all, "Man is his own star" - Emerson.

This no nonsense approach teaching laid out what I had always thought to be the real job of teachers-- to teach the students. In an age where excuses often prevail and everything is someone else's fault, this was a refreshing read. Mrs. Collins received much publicity for her ability to turn around these inner city Chicago kids, but the methods and techniques she uses are universal and timeless. I wish more teachers (and parents!) were aware of the ideas presented here. This should be in every teacher's library.

I am a student at Macon State College. I am majoring in education. I read Marva Collins' Way as a class assignment and loved it. It was so inspirational. To me, Marva was a miracle worker. She cared about her students more than the parents, government, and any other teacher they had had. She dealt with handful of troubles and problems but through her never-let-die attitude, she was able to open her own school and teach children the way they ought to be taught. I definitely suggest that teachers read this book. It is absolutely worth your time.

I read about 70 pages of the book and unfortunately lost it during my travel. I will be buying this book again. Marva is an extraordinary teacher who has taught me at my middle age that NO CHILD CAN FAIL TO SUCCEED in school. She has achieved this with such re-sounding success that one would want to have a teacher like her for all children in the world. I have no words to express how great the feeling is when you know that every child has all the potential to succeed.

I truly enjoyed this book. It focused on a woman who chose to do more than just teach her students, a woman who chose to love her students. I learned so much about dealing with children who have been labeled with learning problems and how important it is to see the child for what they are rather than what someone has chose to call them. So many children are called slow when in fact they are just shy. These children are often simply passed on to the next grade because the were quiet and never bothered anyone. On the other hand, some students are labeled as problem students and simply passed up to the next grade to get rid of them. Marva Collins has a gift, a gift to see all children as wonderfull and full of potential. She challenges them to reach beyond their expectations and strive for a better life. Marva teaches more than just ABC's, she teaches values and skills of survival. She is truly an awsome role model!

I have been re-reading this book (0r parts of it) every year since I first read it in the 1980's -- it is an inspiration to anyone in the teaching profession. I also give it as a gift to the special teachers that I know or that have made a difference in my own childrens' lives.