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Marva Collins’ Way: Returning To Excellence In Education
Marva Collins has received many accolades in recognition of her outstanding work with children. She was featured on Good Morning, America, 20/20, Fox News, and many more programs. A made-for-television movie titled, The Marva Collins Story starred Cicely Tyson and Morgan Freeman first aired in 1982, and is still presented on television.
Alex Haley contributed to Marva Collins’ Way: Returning To Excellence In Education by writing the following foreword: Foreword By Alex Haley
“To say critical is to understate how poorly most of our public education is serving our youth today. Indeed time and again in starkly clinical appraisal, our captains of industry have warned our sources of education that unless the U.S. produces higher-level graduates, American industry inevitably will be thrust into further jeopardy. They point out that today we confront a competition that is better motivated, better trained and smarter than we have ever met before. Moreover, this need breed of competitor nation makes it their governmental policy to maintain their educational standards in pursuit of greater excellence.
It is against this background that this book presents Marva Collins, whose opinions of what is and is not effective teaching afford us a palette of insights into why she must be regarded among America’s foremost educators. Surely, no other secondary school principal ever has been offered the post of Secretary of Education by two consecutive U.S. Presidents. Marva Collins turned down both of these offers, preferring to remain her own woman, unencumbered by politics and bureaucracy, as the founder and the principal of the Westside Preparatory School.
The challenge that motivates Marva Collins is to prove that something positive and constructive can be done about the deplorable rate of dropouts, which is preceded by an attendant level of scholarship among most minority youth. But the inadequacy of U.S. public education of minorities is scarcely less than the inadequacy of public education in general. Even the most elite schools of higher-education perennially cry out against the poor quality of students of all ethnic descriptions who apply for entrance. A chilling statistic recently reported by American industries states that over 30 percent of their job applicants must be rejected because they are not able to fill out the application form properly.
Time and again, Marva Collins has issued this bold challenge: ‘Give me any class in any city. Give me the lowest-achieving students, those who have done poorly. Tell me nothing about those students, not even what they’re studying, and I can go into that classroom and connect with those students.’
The results achieved by Mara Collins’ students are even more dramatic than her challenge. Since she began her school fifteen year ago, every one of that grammar school’s graduates is today either attending some outstanding prep school on full academic scholarship, or has gone on to an outstanding college or university.
These are young Americans who without such schooling likely would have drifted into the surrounding world of drop-outs, public assistance, and addiction.
Little wonder that education administrators from around the world travel to Chicago to visit an inner-city school and expose themselves to the program developed by a dedicated and committed teacher and principal who is doing her utmost to offer something new to education.
What Marva Collins thrusts into the minds of her students is that whomever they are, and wherever they lice, they can achieve quite literally whatever they can dream—no matter what anyone else may say to the contrary.
Why is this book by Marva Collins so important? It is because this book represents her life, her convictions, and her work. Indeed, America would be indefinitely better served if Marva Collins’ philosophy of education somehow could become franchised and implemented on a national scale.” ~ Alex Haley, June 14, 1990.
(The above foreword is presented to our audience under the Creative Commons License. Marva Collins’ Way: Returning To Excellence In Education was published by the Penguin Group (USA) © 1982, 1990 by Marva Collins and Civia Tamarkin. All Rights Reserved.)
Marva Collins’ Way: Returning To Excellence In Education • Reviews “I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. It is a wonderful example of how the dedication of an educator and the love of children can work miracles. Marva is an example to us all and was awe inspiring for me. I am studying to become a teacher myself and hope I will be able to give my students the inspiration and motivation she did. Her methods give us hope for the future of education. It gives us the hope that all children should succeed.” - Fargo, ND. “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.” - Detroit, MI. “The Marva Collins story is an inspiring story of a teacher who was passionate about teaching and excelled through the odds set against her by the school system.” - Las Vegas, NV. “I highly recommend this book for every educator and parent. It is inspirational and long overdue. As I read the book, all I could say was ‘She’s Good!’ Her emphasis on phonics as the basic building blocks for literacy, her continual praise and feedback, and her belief in her students are commendable. This book has allowed me to make significant changes in the way that I approach education with my child. America can learn a lot from this extraordinary teacher who has made a difference.” - Ithaca, NY. “This is a must-read and a page-turner for all those Moms out there needing inspiration and some practical ideas to help their struggling students. I am left wishing Marva would become a more prominent advocator of basic, no nonsense education. Her ideas and contributions are very much needed in this muddled world where educators don’t support the mandated curriculum and many of our kids are still being left very much behind.” - St Petersburg, FL. Experience Even More • Visit The Alex Haley Museum • Alex Haley Memorial • Haley Heritage Square • Alex Haley Farm
 Darren@nypoet.com | |||||||||
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