The word teacher has its roots in the Latin word – meaning to lead or to draw out. Good teachers draw out the best in every student; they are willing to polish and shine each student’s inner gem until his or her true lustre comes through.
Celebrated teacher and activist, Marva Collins felt dejected and doleful about the public education system as it boiled down to an overflow of administrative work and inadequate time to teach her students, which resulted in her decision to leave the school. She then moved on to establish Westside Preparatory School in Garfield Park, an impoverished neighbourhood of Chicago, also termed as the ‘ghetto.’
Marva accepted Chicago’s children who were mostly judged and labelled. They were classified as unteachable, mentally handicap, children with “behavioural problems.” Those unpleasant epithets were left on the door as Marva welcomed them to her school and treated each of them like a fresh sheet of paper. She loved every single child and believed they are all unique and that it is her job to bring out the brilliance in them. Her opening speech on the first day of school goes like: “I am a teacher. A teacher is someone who leads. There is no magic here. Mrs Collins is no miracle worker. I do not walk on water, I do not part the sea. I just love children and work harder than a lot of people, and so will you.”
“I know most of you can’t spell your name. You don’t know the alphabet, you don’t know how to read, you don’t know homonyms or how to syllabicate. I promise you that you will. None of you has ever failed. School may have failed you. Well, goodbye to failure, children. Welcome to success. You will read hard books in here and understand what you read. You will write everyday so that writing becomes second nature to you. You will memorize a poem every week so that you can train your minds to remember things. It is useless for you to learn something in school if you are not going to remember it. But you must help me to help you. If you didn’t give anything, don’t expect anything. Success is not coming to you, you must come to it.”
The great teachers believe in the growth of intellect and talent, and they are fascinated with the process of learning. Mrs Collins taught them phonics, read them Aesop’s fables which are one of the many classics she used in her classroom. She prefers such classics as they each have a moral lesson to be learnt. The children will be engaged to read out loud in class so that if any pronunciation errors are made, she will be able to correct them on the spot. Moreover, while going through the paragraphs, she will pick up new vocabulary for the students, explain the meaning to them and test their understanding moments later. She will also steer the children to think about the story and instill in them a positive and growth mindset.
When 60 Minutes, an American television programme, did a segment on Collin’s classroom, CBS correspondent Morley Safer tried his best to get a child to say he didn’t like the school. “It’s so hard here. There’s no recess. There’s no gym. They work you all day. You have only forty minutes for lunch. Why do you like it? It’s just too hard.”
But the student replied, “that’s why I like it, because it makes your brains bigger.”
Any child can sense if a teacher cared enough to teach. Fixed-minded teachers often think of themselves as finished products. Their role is to simply impart their knowledge, which overtime might become boring. Show me a listless teacher and I will show you a restless class.
Growth-minded teachers tend to be selflessly devoting untold hours to the “worst” students. They are not entirely selfless, but it could be they too simply love to learn, and teaching is a wonderful way to learn. About people and how they learn about what you teach. About yourself. About Life.
The article is referenced from Professor Carol Dweck’s ‘Mindset’ and ‘Marva Collins’ Way’ by Marva Collins and Civia Tamarkin. Below is the link to the free e-book I found online. It is very inspiring and, hopefully, it triggers the zeal in you to grow and keep learning.
http://www.jtbookyard.com/uploads/6/2/9/3/6293106/marva_collins_way.pdf