Marva Collins: High Expectations in Education
Marva Collins showed that high expectations are a prerequisite for success.
By turning students who were written off as learning disabled into readers of Sophocles and Tolstoy, Collins created an environment where personal excellence was a choice.1
Born into segregation in Alabama, Collins would go on to teach in Chicago public schools, become disaffected with the apathy and low expectations she saw there, and start her own preparatory academy called Westside Preparatory School.
Collins was the subject of multiple national interviews, including 60 Minutes. She was even the subject of a TV movie featuring Morgan Freeman.
President Reagan offered her the position of Secretary of Education, which she declined in order to continue running her school and train teachers across the country.2
But perhaps what she is most known for is the Marva Collins Creed — something her students would recite every morning. Here is an excerpt:
Failure is just as easy to combat as success is to obtain. Education is painful and not gained by playing games. Yet it is my privilege to destroy myself if that is what I choose to do. I have the right to fail, but I do not have the right to take other people with me.
It is my right to care nothing about myself, but I must be willing to accept the consequences for that failure, and I must never think that those who have chosen to work, while I played, rested and slept, will share their bounties with me.
My success and my education can be companions that no misfortune can depress, no crime can destroy, and no enemy can alienate. Without education, man is a slave, a savage wandering from here to there believing whatever he is told.3
In the post-Covid world of education, Collins’ methods would probably be seen as extreme and too demanding. It’s likely she would counter by saying that continuing to lower our expectations is robbing us of the opportunity to develop our minds.
The takeaway from her story? Every one of us has the opportunity to learn. It is our responsibility to harness our intellectual curiosity and put it to good use. If we truly value education, we should model the way for future generations.
https://www.neh.gov/about/awards/national-humanities-medals/marva-collins
https://www.thehistorymakers.org/biography/marva-collins-40
Collins, M. & Tamarkin, C. (2002). Marva Collins’ way: Returning to excellence in education. Penguin Random House. https://penguinrandomhousehighereducation.com/book/?isbn=9780874775723.