Marva Collins

Marva Collins (August 31, 1936 – June 25, 2015) was an American teacher.  In 1975  she started Westside Preparatory School in Garfield Park, a poor neighborhood of Chicago. She ran the school for more than 30 years until it closed in 2008.Briscoe, Tony, "Frustration Led to Forging Solid Students in Chicago" [Marva Collins obituary], Chicago Tribune June 26, 2015, p. 7.

She was known for applying classical education, in particular the Socratic method, modified for use in primary schools, successfully with students from poor families. 

She wrote some manuals, books and other materials describing her history and methods.  She was most widely publicized in the 1981 biographical TV movie, The Marva Collins Story, starring Cicely Tyson and Morgan Freeman.

Early life

Collins was born in Monroeville, Alabama. She graduated from Clark College (now known as Clark Atlanta University) in Atlanta, Georgia. 

Career

Collins taught school for two years in Alabama, then moved to Chicago, where she taught in public schools for fourteen years. In 1975 she started Westside Preparatory School. It became an educational and commercial success. In 1996 she began supervising three Chicago public schools that had been placed on probation. In 2004 she received a National Humanities Medal, among many awards for her teaching and efforts at school reform. 

Collins started her low-cost private school  in the building where she lived. She used her teacher's pension to pay for her first costs.  The school was specifically for teaching low-income African American children. .

Books written

Marva Collins' Way, by Marva Collins with Civia Tamarkin
The Marva Collins method; a manual for educating and motivating your child, by Marva Collins
Ordinary Children, Extraordinary Teachers, by Marva Collins
Values: Lighting The Candle of Excellence: A Practical Guide, by Marva Collins
A Conversation with Marva Collins: A Different School, by Marva Collins
Grandma, What Is Learning? by Marva Collins
Redeeming Education, by Marva Collins

Awards

In 1981, Collins received the Award for Greatest Public Service Benefiting the Disadvantaged, an award given out annually by Jefferson Awards.

Further reading

The School that Cared: A Story of the Marva Collins Preparatory School of Cincinnati, by P. Kamara Sekou Collins

 References 

Category:1936 births
Category:2015 deaths
Category:Writers from Birmingham, Alabama
Category:American teachers
Category:Writers from Chicago
Category:Educators from Chicago
Category:Educators from Birmingham, Alabama