One of my heroes

One of the most important influences on me as a teacher is educator Marva Collins, who ran the Westside Preparatory School in Chicago from 1975 to 2008. She was driven to start this school because of the poor quality education that her children and other impoverished black children were receiving. Her teachers used a direct Socratic method and she believed every child could read if they were taught phonics and the structure of the language. Generally, all her students, even those labeled developmentally disabled, learning disabled, and ineducable, were reading by Christmas. Her book, Marva Collins' Way, was and is a great source of inspiration and challenge to me. She now does educational seminars, and more about her can be found on www.MarvaCollins.com. I've always thought she should be the Secretary of Education.

Two of her quotes particularly hit home with me:

—"There is a brilliant child locked inside every student."

—"Don't try to fix the students, fix ourselves first. The good teacher makes the poor student good and the good student superior. When our students fail, we, as teachers, too, have failed."