Marva Collins Teaching Quotations

Everything works when the teacher works. It's as easy as that, and as hard.

Teaching children to read was one thing; keeping them interested in reading was something else.

I got so tired of hearing those proverbs when I was a child. Now I use them all the time. Sometimes they are the best way to say what needs to be said. I teach them to my students. I have a collection of proverbs for class discussion and writing assignments.

When our students fail, we, as teachers, too, have failed.

I have discovered few learning disabled students in my three decades of teaching. I have, however, discovered many, many victims of teaching inabilities.

The good teacher makes the poor student good and the good student superior.

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.

When someone is taught the joy of learning, it becomes a life-long process that never stops, a process that creates a logical individual. That is the challenge and joy of teaching.

Once children learn how to learn, nothing is going to narrow their mind. The essence of teaching is to make learning contagious, to have one idea spark another.

The essence of teaching is to make learning contagious, to have one idea spark another.