Marva Collins's Emotional Appraisals in the Process of Building Her School

After moving from her hometown, Alabama, to Chicago, Marva Collins worked as a teacher at a public elementary school in Chicago. It was here that she encountered the widespread neglect and low expectations placed on Black and low-income students, and therefore, she was determined to establish her own school (Westside Preparatory School) and apply her teaching methods. In this post, we’ll dissect Marva Collins’s emotional journey as depicted in the 1981 film The Marva Collins Story and her book Marva Collins' Way. We will trace her initial frustration, her determined reappraisals during struggle, and her ultimate goal validation to reveal how her inner dialogue built an educational revolution.

Movie: The Marva Collins Story

Before Building Her School: The Appraisals of Frustration That Forged her Goal

Marva’s initial appraisals as a teacher in the Chicago public school system gave rise to her frustration and anger towards conventional education. Her primary appraisal was of goal relevance. She saw the system’s low expectations and bureaucratic neglect as a direct and severe goal incongruence. At the school she served, most of the teachers believed that Black students were innately less capable to learn and succeed, which was in contrast to Mrs. Collins' belief. 

"Our children are not the culprits; they are the victims. My twenty years of experience in education have convinced me that children want to learn and can learn. Provide them with the right environment, the right motivation, and the right material, and children will demonstrate their natural ability to excel."  

                                                                                                    --Marva Collins' Way, p.5

Her secondary appraisals cemented her emotional state: she attributed the problem to other-agency (the failing system and its flawed policies) and felt she had low coping potential to change the behemoth from within. She also felt that the system’s approach violently clashed with her internal standards of justice and excellence. In the film, this is shown in scenes where she argued with administrators who have labeled Black children "unteachable." She was extremely angry about this misjudgment of Black students. This consistent emotional appraisal provided the fuel for her to leave the security of her teaching job at the public school and start her own school (i.e., Westside Preparatory School).

"Who is to blame then? Everyone. To solve our education crisis, we need to work on improving the entire system and every cog in the wheel. We need skilled, creative, persistent leadership at the top on both the local and national levels. We need a much higher degree of parental involvement, not just in the home but in volunteer capacities at every school in the country. We need strong principals who are more about children than about personality polls, politics, or job preservation. And, most important of all, we need dedicated, well-trained, highly respected, well-compensated teachers in front of our classrooms at every level and in every strata of society."

                                                                                                        --Marva Collins' Way, p.5 

During Building Her School: Reappraising Fear into Determined Action

The decision to start Westside Preparatory School in her own home shows an act of Marva Collins' reappraisal. She consciously shifted her focus from the immovable education system to her own capabilities. This cognitive reframing changed her behavior entirely. Instead of solely complaining about the system, she took action to achieve her goal and establish her school. 

However, Marva Collins also encountered many obstacles when she built her school. The financial problems and lack of student registration led to fear and anxiety for her, especially in the beginning stage. She appraised these challenging situations with low certainty and low coping potential, because she was not sure whether she could address all the difficulties and continue her school for any more new semesters. For example, in the film, when she stared at a stack of unpaid bills, Marva Collins frowned and looked worried. 

But luckily, she consistently reappraised these threats. She shifted her appraisal to high self-agency and high coping potential. Accordingly, she worked hard to prepare lessons and consistently motivated her students to believe they could succeed. The emotion of fear was thus transformed into determination and hope. Her famous mantra to students, "Trust yourself," was as much a reappraisal for herself as for them. Every small victory of her students, such as a student finally acquiring a word or understanding a Shakespearean sonnet, was a powerful and positive reinforcement of her new appraisals, generating pride and joy that sustained her through immense difficulty.

After Building Her School: The Emotions of Validated Certainty

The ultimate success of Westside Preparatory School and the consequent national recognition were the final validation of Marva Collins's lifelong appraisals. The outcomes were finally goal-congruent: she showed the education system that the "unteachable" children are actually teachable and excellent. The anxiety and fear from the early days were replaced by the certainty that her path was right. The joy she exhibited was not from fame, but from the confirmation of her core belief that every child can learn when someone believes in them enough.

"Give me any class in any city. Give me the lowest-achieving students, those who have done poorly. Tell me nothing about those students, not even what they're studying, and I can go into that classroom and connect with those students."

                                                                                                        --Marva Collins' Way, p.52                    

Marva Collins’s story shows that our emotional responses are not predetermined endpoints but the results of our interpretations. By consciously choosing to reappraise challenges as opportunities, threats as motivations, and helpless children as children of infinite potential, she changed the world for hundreds of children. Her legacy teaches us that the most powerful tool we have is not just what we feel, but how we choose to interpret the situations we are in and the emotions we experience.