Terrific Women Teachers by Helen Wolfe

Author:Helen Wolfe
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Second Story Press
Published: 2013-09-10T16:00:00+00:00

Marva Collins

WHEN THE ROCK star, Prince, visited Chicago’s Westside Preparatory School in the middle of a concert tour, what he saw brought tears to his eyes. In fact, Prince was so impressed that he donated millions of dollars to make sure that the school’s doors would stay open. He said, “This is the kind of school that I’ve always wanted to go to.”

This very special school was created by a teacher named Marva Collins. She has changed the lives of thousands of students that others had given up on. Her own words give insight into how she managed to achieve what she did: “What everybody says can’t be done becomes a challenge to me. My attitude has always been that I can do anything anyone else has done. It’s a matter of the choices that I make.” Marva’s dedication to educating kids that others found to be unteachable has made her one of the most famous teachers in the United States.

Marva Collins was born Marva Deloise Nettles on August 31, 1936, in the state of Alabama. When Marva was growing up, segregation was a way of life that unfairly separated African Americans in the South from their neighbors, in almost every aspect of daily life. African Americans did not have equal rights with whites. Black people were not allowed to use the public library or many other public facilities, and black children had to attend separate, segregated schools. Often, these segregated schools were ill-equipped, and didn’t have proper teaching materials with the most up-to-date information. Students had to make do with old books and poor learning conditions that were far worse than what was available for white children.

For a black child in the South like Marva, getting a decent education was no easy matter, but from a very young age, she wanted to learn. Marva had a family who loved her and supported her ambitions. In fact, her childhood was wonderful. Her father, Alex Nettles, was very important in her life. He had several careers, including being a successful businessman. Although he was always busy, working hard to support his family, her father took time to pay special attention to Marva and her younger sister Cynthia, and interested himself in their education.

When she was still a young child, Marva’s father gave her serious jobs to do, which helped to build her confidence and sense of responsibility. For example, her father asked her to arrange the shelves in his store, to keep track of the bills, and to deposit the store’s money in the bank. He never gave her “baby work.” Instead, he entrusted her with essential jobs that were needed to run his business, and kept his daughter motivated to do her best work. Marva realized that she felt great when she was able to set herself a high goal and then meet it. Later, when she became a teacher, she always remembered to give that same feeling to her own students.

After she graduated from high school, Marva attended Clark College in Atlanta, Georgia.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.