The Marva Collins Story: Marva Collins
Marva Collins grew up in Atmore, Alabama at a time when segregation was the rule. Black people were not permitted to use the public library, and her schools had few books, and no indoor plumbing. Nonetheless, her family instilled in her an awareness of the family’s historical excellence and helped develop her strong desire for learning, achievement and independence. After graduating from Clark College in Atlanta, Georgia, she taught school in Alabama for two years. She moved to Chicago and taught in Chicago’s public school system for fourteen years.
Her experiences in that system, coupled with her dissatisfaction with the quality of education that her two youngest children were receiving in prestigious private schools, convinced her that children deserved better than what was passing for acceptable education. That conviction led to her decision to open her own school on the second floor of her home. She took the $5,000 balance in her school pension fund and began her educational program with an enrollment of her own two children and four other neighborhood youngsters.
Thus, Westside preparatory School was founded in 1975 in Garfield Park, a Chicago inner-city area. During the first year, Marva took in learning disabled, problem children and even one child who had been labeled by Chicago public school authorities as borderline retarded. At the end of the first year, every child scored at least five grades higher proving that the previous labels placed on these children were misguided. The CBS program, 60 Minutes, visited her school for the second time in 1996. That little girl who had been labeled as border line retarded, graduated in 1976 from college Summa Cum Laude. It was documented on the 60 Minutes programs in 1996. Marva’s graduates have entered some of the nation’s finest colleges and universities, such as Harvard, Yale, and Stanford, to mention just a few. And, they have become physicians, lawyers, engineers, educators, and entered other professions.
Ms. 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 too numerous to list. A made-for-television movie titled, The Marva Collins Story starred Cicely Tyson and Morgan Freeman first aired in1 1982, and is still presented on television. Some of her awards include:
- The Jefferson Award for Benefiting the Disadvantaged
- The Humanitarian Award for Excellence
- Legendary Women of the World Award
- Many honorary doctoral degrees from universities such as
Amherst, Dartmouth, Notre Dame, and Clark University
- The prestigious National Humanities Medal from President Bush in 2004
She has turned the responsibilities of running her school over to her daughter, Cynthia B. Collins, who was one of the first students in the Westside Preparatory School. Today, Marva Collins trains teachers in her educational program and methodology. Her curriculum is based on classical literature, and other subject material that contain ideas, lofty thoughts, and abstract concepts. The purpose is to teach children the values that hold societies together and that present to students thoughts that may be interpreted differently. Fourth graders in her school, for example, read Plato’s dialogue, The Republic. In it, Plato asks, “What is justice?” Justice has different meaning, according to one’s viewpoint or interpretations. The students are encouraged to express their own opinion. And, as any observer of Ms. Collins classes will attest, the children are eager to participate in classroom discussions, and their verbal skills are outstanding as are their reasoning abilities. Her students are taught to appreciate the nuances of language, how to analyze and challenge what they read, and to express their opinions. They learn to contrast their own ideas with the differing ones as expressed by the other students.
Ms. Collins has spoken to many major corporations including The National Girl Scouts, The National Retailers Association, The National Dairy Association, The European Division of IBM, Xerox Corporation, The Million Dollar Roundtable, The Young President’s Organization (YPO), The National Bankers’ Association, Anheuser-Busch, Coors, and she has trained executives of Long John Silvers. Corporations have accurately discerned that the same skills Ms. Collins develops in her students are applicable in successful business entities.
..."The American Directory of Certified Uncle Toms is a reference book for Black people which focuses on the notable American Uncle Toms themselves who wittingly and unwittingly act to enforce Earth's most destructive invention: White World Supremacy."
From the book: The American Directory of Certified Uncle Toms by the Council on Black Internal Affairs
Copyright 2002 CBIA Publishing
The Global community must accept the reality of, and get knowledge to the diabolical death-dealing nature of the world's greatest sickness. White Supremacy
i remember reading excerpts from this book supposedly Whoopi Goldberg is in it and the this attorney forget his name...bald-headed black dude with wire frame glasses i think he was involve with OJ Simpson and Marsha Clark
why is it the sad songs that provoke the most thought
This is unbelievable! African-Americans make up only 9% of the Los Angeles population but 50% of black people are homeless. What the heck is up with that!
Ironman, where did you see that information? That's not hard to believe that a lot of black men are homeless. I told you before why a lot of them are unemployed and homeless because they refuse to do what it takes to get a job.
Originally Posted by CharlesJones
I said African-Americans, not black men. Well, I wouldn't be surprised that a high percentage of black men would make up the high homelessness percentage in CA.
In terms of employment, could it be that black women have higher job opportunities than black men? To me, it seems that there are a lot of programs and jobs that are aimed towards black women than women.
Also, in CA, since Mexicans are the largest minority in America and since they're greatly concentrated in the south west, competition is very high b/w black and Mexicans when it comes to employment.
Now, stereotypes and race play a major role in this case. Mexicans are own to be hard workers while blacks are own to be lazy and stupid. Some Mexicans are own to speak to languages (Spanish and English) while blacks can barely speak proper English. Mexicans have their unique culture and wonderful food while blacks are own to have an ugly culture, clothing, and mediocre food. Also, Mexicans are own to accepted lower wages than Americans.
I remember a quote than a female business owner in CA stated in regards to African-American unemployment. She said and I quote, "If blacks want to compete with Mexicans in this tough economy, they're should get themselves a college degree AND be very fluent in Spanish."
Damn! Mexicans can remain uneducated but blacks have to receive a college degree just to be considered for a job sweeping floors?!
Last edited by IrOnMaN; 04-09-2011 at 12:59 PM.
I see what you're saying. Job world is racist towards blacks and i talked about this in the topic i posted in Know The Ledge talking about racist whites will have you believe all black men are lazy and they don't want a job. Check out what i said today when i posted to that topic Ironman and gimme your opinion. I applied for 2 part time cleaning jobs lately on Craigslist.com and they haven't responded yet. How hard can it be to get a fucking cleaning job? I've worked a few cleaning jobs before. So therefore i have a lot of years of cleaning experience. I don't understand why jobs post ads in the newspaper and internet because when you apply for the job, their bitch asses aren't gonna call you or they'll take a long time to call you. A lot of white job supervisors are racist towards black men. I do realize that more black women are getting jobs than black men and that's because i believe white men supervisors are scared of black men because black men intimidate them. It's funny to me how when white men were slave masters, they weren't scared of black men. But now since black men aren't slaves, white men are scared to work with them LOL.
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