Taylor Ben-shachar, a lecturer of Harvard Happy Course who has swept the world in recent years, mentioned more than once that a person who inspires, inspires and inspires himself-a woman who has been a primary school teacher all her life-is marva collins.

In the 1980s, President Reagan and President Bush invited this elementary school teacher to be the Minister of Education in the federal government. But she refused. She said, "I belong in the classroom".

From 1960s to 2008, marva collins taught elementary education in the black community of Chicago for half a century.

Marva collins's works

The most amazing thing is that in such an area with poor education level, Mawa uses her own educational ideas and methods to make every child in the class a good student who is diligent and eager to learn. Not only did every student get excellent academic performance, but everyone was admitted to the university.

Everyone went to college? It sounds incredible, but it's true. In her eyes, "there are no unqualified students, only unqualified teachers and teaching systems."

0 1. Pay attention to children's advantages and strengths, and care and cultivate them slowly.

In the 1930s, racial discrimination in the United States was extremely serious. Many black children can only choose obedience and compromise, but Marva, who was born in a black town in Alabama, doesn't think so. Her father loves her and supports her to have her own ideas. When she was very young, her father told Mawa, "You are smart, you are beautiful, you are special, and you can be an excellent secretary when you grow up!" " At that time, secretarial work was already a great job for black women. Of course, Mawa didn't let his father down. At the age of 22, she became a secretary in her hometown with excellent performance. But this secretarial job has only been done for two years.

Mawa, who finished her secretarial career, came to Chicago alone to pursue her dream of becoming a teacher. In the 1960s, downtown Chicago became a slum inhabited by black people, full of violence, drugs and alcohol. It is difficult for many children to persist in school and study, and even school teachers under the influence of social chaos can't teach seriously. Mawa said, "How can a person who has never read other books except textbooks teach his children to read?"

On the first day of class, Mawa said seriously to the children, "We should establish our own beliefs." . Even if the school environment is so unbearable, she hopes that her children can stay in school for a few more years. Many children leave the campus, and all they can do is join the chaotic gangs on the street, and gradually come into contact with various crimes and go to the road of no return. "I don't want you to be like that," Marva tirelessly told her students. "I believe in you, you can succeed, you have to take responsibility for yourself, so stop complaining, stop complaining about society, stop complaining about teachers, stop complaining about parents, and succeed on your own." Mawa takes every student seriously, whether it is "learning disabled people" or "the devil in the street", and treats them equally and is full of expectations.

Mawa focuses on the advantages and strengths of these children, and slowly cares for and cultivates them. Unbelievable, a miracle happened. Every student got excellent grades and was admitted to the university. This is unprecedented in the history of American education.

02. Pay attention to the cultivation of reading and expression skills.

Every student is experiencing a miracle. Of course, human strength is limited. In addition to these students, many students have gradually become problem students who are rejected by others. Many students are labeled as "waste" and "hopeless" and are constantly discriminated against and even insulted by teachers. At the same time, in addition to internal worries, there are even "foreign invasion" publishers colluding with the school, which leads to the school's textbooks being basically worthless, and many junk textbooks simply cannot meet the needs of students' ability improvement. Mawa couldn't stand such a teaching system and decided to do it according to her own ideas.

She found a number of excellent story books from libraries and bookstores. Through these excellent books, students can learn vocabulary, read and write. Mawa has always believed that no matter what kind of work one is engaged in in in the future, one must have the ability to read and express, so as to adapt to the basic work and do better than others. It is with this belief that every class in Mawa's classroom is a literature class.

She took her children to read famous books and literary works, and constantly established students' own knowledge system by knowing new words. The stories in the famous books are also slowly combing out the knowledge of history, philosophy, geography, politics and other disciplines under the in-depth reading of children. With the continuous improvement of knowledge system, the learning ability of natural students will be improved.

In such a reading and expression-oriented class, these students who were once considered "unteachable" by other teachers will be familiar with the works of euripides, Emerson and Shakespeare by the fourth grade.

These "dead wood cannot be carved" students can do high school math problems at the age of 10.

But what followed was the rumor about Mawa. Students from other classes hurried to school and couldn't wait to leave school. Why can only Mawa students stay in the classroom for so long? For a time, the rumor that "Mawa forced students" spread all over the campus.

Marva collins left the public school and started his own school in his own small kitchen. But it didn't go well at first. Only four students came in the first class. These students have all dropped out of public schools. Because of this, Mawa became the last barrier before these students became street hooligans.

Mawa insists on his own educational philosophy, and by recognizing students, trusting students and focusing on everyone's advantages,

Let miracles keep happening. More and more students come here. They continue to study, in this small room which is hot in Leng Xia in winter, miracles continue to happen to them one after another. Those "unteachable" students all went to college.

03.2 times rejected the post of Minister of Education.

"I like children, I belong to the classroom", but Mawa has been living in poverty for decades, and the economic situation has been very bad.

Because many students can't afford tuition. 1979, the situation changed overnight: the producer of CBS "60 Minutes" learned the story of marva collins and made a 15 minute program, so she became famous overnight.

10 In October, newly elected President Ronald Reagan called Mawa and asked her to be his Minister of Education. Marva collins refused the invitation. She said, "I like teaching too much. I belong to the classroom. "

Eight years later, the newly elected President Bush called Mawa again and asked her to be his Minister of Education. Once again, she said, "I like teaching too much. I belong to the classroom. "

From 65438 to 0995, a wealthy philanthropist donated tens of millions of dollars to marva collins, and now there are miracles of marva collins all over the United States.

Today, there are politicians, businessmen, lawyers and doctors among the students in Collins, Malva-and teachers are the most, because they know their contributions.

Stills from the movie The Story of marva collins.

Although Mawa is gone, her legend will not be forgotten. Her educational thoughts and teaching methods have always influenced the educational circles in the United States and even the world.

Finally, let's go back to marva collins's unpretentious sentence: "I just like children and work harder than most people. You can do the same. "

Every child is like a seed. Maybe its growth cycle is fast and slow, maybe it has its own characteristics and differences, but when it is cared for slowly with time and attention, every child will produce beautiful flowers, which is unique in the world. Education is the spiritual communication between adults and children. I hope that when every child is young, someone will say to him repeatedly, solemnly and kindly, "No matter who you are, no matter where you live, no matter how other people oppose this view-you will eventually realize your dream."

May children have more teachers like Mawa, and may every child have a full and complete growth time.