z41\doc\web\2000\05\marva.txt
From: George N. Schmidt [mailto:Csubstance@AOL.COM]
Sent: Tuesday, May 02, 2000 9:23 AM
To: ARN-L@LISTS.CUA.EDU
Subject: Re: The Marva Collins Hoax and other Chicago Miracles




In a message dated 5/2/00 6:41:40 AM, gbracey@EROLS.COM writes:


<< Yeah, but I need hard data, too.  Do you have any of your stories in
files? 


1. I found the files from the 1982 publications in Substance, and a clip file
going back to 1977 tracing the media's complicity in the Marva Collins hoax.
The materials are on their way to you today. I'm sorry for the delay some of
our materials are buried under piles of other things.


2. I won't be going back into that swamp for a current events update. I doubt
that Cynthia Collins would let me near the facts about her "school" any more
than her mother would 20 years ago. But the three areas I've outlined (actual
family income of the students; verification of test score claims;
vertification of the claims of the school being completely 'private' and
never using tax dollars) are the questions that always have to be followed up
where Marva is concerned. Anyone who pushes Marva's bildge should be asked to
verify these three factoids. Verification won't exist, and the further you
dig, the more you'll find unverified claims piled on unverified claims. This
is one area of "hard data" regarding Marva's claims. If history be any guide,
however, you are not going to get near actual hard data, and if you press for
answers and the right to check facts against sources (other than Marva's
claims), you'll be called a racist.


3. The entire story (from 1977 when it was launched here in Chicago through
1982 when we debunked it here in Chicago) is a very informative story about
how the media play up a few simple minded slogans if they are plugged into
the right circuits. "No excuses" was one of Marva's slogans long before Gary
Hart and the Monkey Business. But (as you'll note going through the whole
file) once she was caught by our investigation (and the subsequent follow-up
by all the other media), she had excuse after excuse for everything from her
"mistake" about CETA ("no tax dollars") to her plagiarism of Neil Postman.


This may be one of the windows on how the New Right agenda, from Reagan to
Clinton, is actually brought out in practice.


That will be the most important "hard data" of all.


Let me know when you get this stuff and if it helps.


George Schmidt


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Yeah, but I need hard data, too.  Do you have any of your stories in files?


----- Original Message -----
From: George N. Schmidt <Csubstance@AOL.COM
To: <ARN-L@LISTS.CUA.EDU
Sent: Tuesday, May 02, 2000 4:50 AM
Subject: The Marva Collins Hoax and other Chicago Miracles




 In a message dated 4/30/00 10:51:45 PM, ArthurH@TANGIS.COM writes:


 << Same with Marva Collins, 


 Arthur (and others),


 If this is an example of a "poor" minority school that bootstrapped its
way
 to success, spare me the rest of the sermon. From the beginning, it was a
 media event, promoted by conservatives, then (for a brief time) hoisted to
 fame (and fortune) by CBS News. I did the story on this (and exposed how
 "Sixty Minutes" flubbed the original version and promoted a hoax) 20 years
 ago. Sorry to burst your bubble, but the Marva story is still being
recycled
 from those initial components. It fits nicely into what some people want
to
 believe, from the public school bashing (and teacher bashing) through the
 bootstrap myths.


 Marva's school has always served a middle class population, charging very
 high tuition. The reason is continues to bounce back into fashion is it is
an
 icon of the conservatives who bash public schools. Before you go quoting
 stuff about Marva Collins to those of us from Chicago who worked on that
hoax
 20 years ago, get a list of all of the children in the school (or in any

 version of it anywhere) and line that list up with a couple of other
factors:


 1. Family income, verified by documentation (not a Marva "trust me")


 2. Address of home (preferably with a home visit to note the type of
 community).


 By 1981, when I first looked at "West Side Prep," the school was located
in
 ZIP Code 60624 (one of the Third World ZIP Codes here in Chicago), but the
 majority of kids were middle class (including, for a time, the son of
 Chicago's police superintendent).


 It was a hoax that some people wanted to believe. After all, if one "poor"
 ex-teacher could "succeed" with the "rejects" of the public schools,
anyone
 could.


 The basis for the scam was the unwillingness of the people who promoted
the
 myth to ask hard questions about the claims, whether those claims were
about
 (a) social economic status of the children at the school; (b) test score
 gains (at one point she had the kids gaining "three years" each year for
five
 straight years!); (c) "we never took any tax money..." (a flat out lie 20
 years ago, and a major part of the early myth).


 If you actually request information, you'll get an endless loop of clips
 files, going back now 20 years, all retelling the same story over and
over.
 But no hard data, since when you ask for those data you find that your
 miracle person is "too busy" to get around to finding it. And never any
 independent audits of the claims, just repetition of the one-liners and
sound
 bites.


 The New Right (including the Heritage Foundation) has been peddling Marva
as
 part of the attack on public schools for more than 20 years. The sound
bites
 and one liners are now in their second generation. I took the first really
 close look at "West Side Prep" in 1981 and 1982. The school fell apart on
all
 three key components of the myth, the one-liners, the sound bites, and the
 public school teacher bashing. I published three stories calling it a
media
 hoax, which it was.


 As to the famous "method" used at the schools. Elsewhere, it's called
"drill
 and kill."


 Enough said. There are a lot of other things to do here in Chicago. You
can
 believe in stigmata and extra-terrestrials, too, if you want. Any highly
 touted tonic promoting conservative educational "reforms" and "miracles"
 coming out of Chicago, however, should have a warning label. Beware of
people
 who speak in sound bites and one-liners. Don't swallow the Chicago stories
 unless you want to spend some time on the other side of the looking glass.
 It's your choice; free country and all that.


 George Schmidt
 Editor, Substance
 5132 W Berteau
 Chicago, IL 60641
 773-725-7502


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In a message dated 5/2/00 12:48:13 PM, ArthurH@tangis.com writes:


<< http://www.leconsulting.com/arthurhu/index/success.htm#marvacolllins >>


Arthur,


I tried and got this message.


The attempt to load 
‘http://www.leconsulting.com/arthurhu/index/success.htm#marvacolllins’ failed.


I will make you a copy of the material I've sent to Jerry Bracey and get it 
to you in due time if you have a snail mail address.


The material I have covers the period from 1977 through 1982, when I exposed 
the hoax and the debunking of the original story became a major media event 
here in Chicago for about six weeks. After that, all the players knew she was 
a hoax.


The packaging sounds the same today ("No excuses") as it was back in 1981, 
when Marva leaked word through the Chicago Sun-Times that she was being 
"considered" for the post of U.S. Secretary of Education by Ronald Reagan. 
Not likely, since even Reagan needed an education secrtary who was numerate 
and literate, and Marva was challenged in both areas. I even interviewed the 
people who made the Cicily Tyson movie, which they labelled a "docudrama." 
That means fiction and fabrication posing as fact. They were inventing it 
back then. Now it's the stuff of general discourse. Anyway, the movie is 
better viewed as fiction than fact.


Again, send snail mail address and I will get some stuff to you. I think when 
you see it all in hard copy you'll cringe about what is available (and not 
available) in cyberspace.


Remember, if you question Marva on any key point, she (or one of her 
assistants) will begin the debate by calling you a racist. But if you're 
seriously interested, try and find out how much tuition is this year at her 
schools.  


George Schmidt
Editor, Substance
5132 W. Berteau
Chicago, IL 60641
773-725-7502