书名：Marva Collins’ Way 马文柯林斯的教育方法
作者：Marva Collins
出版社名称：TarcherPerigee
出版时间：1990
语种：英文 
ISBN：9780874775723
商品尺寸：13.8 x 1.7 x 20.9 cm
包装：平装
页数：242

Marva Collins可能是美国当代传奇的小学教师，她拒绝了美国总统邀她出任教育部长的邀请，坚守在她一手创办的Westside Preparatory。Marva Collins出版了一本书Marva Collins’ Way《马文柯林斯的教育方法》。这本书是Marva的个人经历：书中没有条条框框的理论，只是将Marva的故事娓娓道来，真实而感人。

“America would be infinitely better served if Marva Collins’ philosophy of education somehow could become franchised and implemented on a national scale.”  —Alex Haley, author ofRoots
Marva Collins offers a beacon of hope in the midst of America’s educational crises.Marva Collins’ Way recounts Marva Collins’ successful teaching strategies and offers inspirational advice on how to motivate children to fulfill their potential. This updated edition contains a new epilogue for parents and teachers.
“The first things we are going to do here, children, is an awful lot of believing in ourselves.” With these words, Marva Collins greets her students and opens them up to a potential many never thought possible. It is her constant “You can do it” that convinces her students there is nothing they cannot achieve. This independent-minded teacher’s drive, courage, and dedication has helped her students reach high levels of accomplishment,. Her story can be any parent’s or teacher’s model.
Marva Collins’ Way is a prescription for effective teaching and graphic indictment of what is wrong with much of American education today. More than just an account of one teacher’s struggles and successes, it demonstrates a teacher’s technique that can be applied in every classroom and home.
In 1981, this book was made into the TV movie The Marva Collins Story starring Cicely Tyson and Morgan Freeman.

Marva Collins出生于20世纪30年代的阿拉巴马州。她父是非裔美国人，母是美洲印第安人。她出生的时候，当地的种族歧视风行。幸运的是，Marva的父对她非常有信心，从小就对她说“Marva，你这一生将会有作为。你可以成为一名秘书。”他之所以说秘书是因为鉴于族裔背景，加之性别原因，她想要成为一名秘书，与其说是有着无形的门槛，不如说这门槛就明摆着存在着。
“这是一个普通女人的名字，”她接着说：“Marva一开始在公司做秘书，工作干得还不错，但有，她觉得这工作不适合她，而她发现自己对教书很有热情，她想成为学校里的一名教师，于是她上夜校，几年后，她拿到了教师证书。”
“Marva去了芝加哥的一所公立学校，那个城市的青少年犯罪非常严重，很多青少年吸毒，并加入街头帮派，学生厌恶学习，厌恶学校。怎样让学生更长时间的呆在教室里呢？Marva经过一番思索后说，事情将会有所改观。
在上课第1天，她对学生们说：“我们好好树立自己的信念。”她不厌其烦地传达着这一信息。她坚持对学生说——我相信你，你能成功，自己承担自己的责任，别再埋怨，成功与否全在你。她不厌其烦地传达着这些积极的信息。同时她对学生满怀期待，把目光放在他们的优点和长处上，并加以培养。奇迹就这样发生了。
Marva在学校里教一年级到四年级，慢慢地，事情真得如她所说的那样有了改观，她的学生，那些认为“不可教”的学生，到了四年级就可以读爱默生和莎士比亚的作品了，十岁的学生就可以做高中的数学。”
“但是有人嫉妒并恶语中伤她。Marva便离开了这所学校，开办了自己的家庭学校。给学生上课就在她家的厨房里，一开始只有四个学生，其中两个是她自己的孩子，渐渐地更多的学生来到了她的家，来的学生很多都是从公立学校退学的，还有很多街头的小混混，学生越来越多，她就在外面租了一间房做教室，冬天寒冷无比，夏天酷热难耐，但是学生们的学习热情很高。奇迹在Marva的学生身上发生了，Marva所有的学生从小学一直上到高中毕业，接着，所有的学生，注意，是所有的学生都上了大学，然后大学毕业，没错，就是那些‘不可教’的学生。”
“Marva数十年生活贫困，然而她努力平衡学校开支，因为很多学生都缴不起学费。这些日子还是熬过去了。1979年，情况一夜之间发生了变化，CBS《60分钟》栏目的制片人得知了Marva的故事之后，制作了15分钟的节目，她一夜成名，1980年，美国新当选的总统里根打电话给Marva请她做教育部长，但Marva拒绝了他的邀请，她说，我太喜欢教师这个职业了，八年过去了，新当选的总统老布什再次打电话请她做教育部长，她再一次拒绝。1995年，一位慈善家捐赠了数千万美元给Marva，现在全国都有Marva的学校，Marva的学生有政治家，律师和医生，但更多的是教师。
到底是什么让那些街头小混混成为社会上的有用之才呢？是什么原因让奇迹发生呢？是什么原因让美国两任总统选择Marva做教育部部长呢？
Marva说，我想我做得很好，我想我很聪明，我很特别，我会教每个孩子这么想。从第1天上课的时候，我会不断重复地对学生说：我相信你，你能做好，你很棒，你能成功，你可以承担生活的责任，停止抱怨吧，停止抱怨社会，停止抱怨老师，停止抱怨父母，幸福和快乐就在你身上。
当我的学生不守规矩的时候，我的惩罚是，我让他们写100个原因，说明为什么他们棒到要做那样的事，而且要按照字母顺序写：我很可爱，我很漂亮，我很勇敢。
我给他们例子要他们明白，我令人快乐，我很兴奋，我很厉害，我很棒，我是榜样，我无与伦比，我很热情，我很重要，我从不调皮，一直写到zui后一个字母，如果有谁再犯，那就必须要用另一个同义词，它们不能再用原来的词。现在孩子们会对新学生说，我们已经厌倦告诉Marva我有多棒了。
这就是Marva的成功之处，这就是Marva的学生成功之处。这便是Marva的积极学习法。

Marva Collins taught school for two years in Alabama, then moved to Chicago, where she taught in public schools for 14 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. She took the $5,000 balance in her school pension fund and opened her own school on the second floor of her home.

The Westside Preparatory School was founded in 1975 in Garfield Park, a Chicago inner-city area. During the first year, Collins 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.60 Minutes, visited her school for the second time in 1996. That little girl who had been labeled as border line retarded, graduated from college Summa Cum Laude. Marva’s graduates entered colleges and universities, such as Harvard, Yale, and Stanford. They became physicians, lawyers, engineers, and educators. In 1996 she began supervising three Chicago public schools that had been placed on probation.

In 1981, she received the Award for Greatest Public Service Benefiting the Disadvantaged, an award given out annually by the Jefferson Awards. In 2004 she received a National Humanities Medal for her teaching and efforts at school reform.

Marva Collins’ Creed
Society will draw a circle that shuts me out, but my superior thoughts will draw me in. I was born to win if I do not spend too much time trying to fail. I will ignore the tags and names given me by society since only I know what I have the ability to become.
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.
Time and chance come to us all. I can be either hesitant or courageous. I can swiftly stand up and shout: “This is my time and my place. I will accept the challenge.”