Posted on February 18, 2010 by Stephan Wiedner

What does teaching elementary school kids their A-B-Cs and 1-2-3s have to do with helping people live more happy and healthy lives?

I recently had the privilege of hearing a keynote speech by Dr. Tal Ben-Shahar. He was first made famous when the attendence of his introductory positive psychology class at Harvard swelled from eight to 800 students within three years.

Ben-Shahar gave praise to Marva Collins, an elementary school teacher who made headlines in the 70s and 80s for doing the impossible. She dropped herself into the heart of the Chicago slums to teach what are dubbed the rejects, ne’er-do-well’s, and troubled children of society.

The results: every one of her students graduated from highschool and their average grades were higher than the state’s average.

Her story is dated but the lessons are as valuable today as they were 20 or 30 years ago. She uses a tough love, no non-sense, you-can-do-it approach to motivate and inspire children to want to learn. And boy did they learn. Check out this video produced by 60 Minutes which offers a follow-up with a small handful of her students, 15 years after the fact.

I am not an expert teacher. Nor am I an expert on the Marva Collins approach but I have tried to dissect the key methods that she uses. Whether you are a teacher, a parent, a coach, or a leader in your organization, we can all learn from these lessons.

1. B is for Believe … in everyone

Marva Collins was given a list of students with long rap sheets and assessed learning deficiencies. The first thing she did was threw them away. She believed that every student could learn and it was her job to ensure that they did. No excuses.

If you are coaching someone or working with a team, you have to believe that they are capable of anything. This is particularly relevant if you are working with someone you’ve known for a while. Don’t get hung up by your limiting beliefs about them and don’t let them go on and on about excuses and reasons why not.

Of course that’s easier said than done. Watch this 20 second perception test I created to see how tricky it can be.

2. A is for Ask … the Right Question

Did you get tricked by the video above? Did you notice how the question encouraged you to look for colors on a clock and by doing so, you may have completely missed out on what time the clock said it was?

Marva Collins always asked herself how she was going to teach the children. Or more importantly, how she was going to convince the children to want to learn. She was constantly looking for answers to those questions and customizing her approach to meet the individual needs of the students.

Had she asked the question “how am I going to keep these kids off the street?” or “how am I going to survive another day?” the results could have been completely different.

When you are working with a client, friend, or team, are you asking yourself the right question?

3. C is for Compliment … your Clients and the People Around You

It’s not always rosy when it comes to bringing out the best in others. Sometimes you need to be firm to maintain high expectations for people. Marva Collins did this by offering compliments to her students before correcting them. She also instructed other teachers to do the same to see the good in their students.

• “Your shoes are very stylish, dear. Please tuck your shirt in.”
• “Speak up honey. You are brilliant!”
• “Anthony, you are such a hard worker! Now remember, ‘i’ before ‘e’ except after ‘c’.”

You can do the same for your clients. You don’t have to find that magical compliment that touches their deepest desires. Just commenting on their shoes lets them know that you are paying attention to them.


If you want to learn more about Marva Collins, she authored a book title the Marva Collins’ Way. I highly recommend it, even if you are not a teacher.

Please leave your comments and share your thoughts. I would love to hear from you.

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