When an autistic girl came to a new school, she had never spoken in her life. Despite her silence and isolation, she chose to say her first words there.

They were "I love you."

And they were directed at her teacher, Marva Collins.

Collins has since joined the vanguard of education with her faith in children's innate ability to learn.

Twenty years ago, Collins founded the Westside Preparatory School in Chicago, using her pension from 14 years of public school teaching. Beginning with only 18 students, she educated them in her home.

Today the enrollment is more than 250, and Collins has organized two more schools in Chicago and one in Cincinnati. Yet her basic educational theory has remained the same - set high standards for children and they will live up to them.

This theory most likely came from Collins' childhood. Although she attended a segregated school in Monroeville, Ala., during a time when blacks were not considered the equals of whites, her teachers instilled in her a sense of self-worth.

"School was easy for me," she said in a recent interview at The Children's Museum. "I really was an achiever, and I had very positive teachers who validated it, told me how great I was, how bright I was. And of course, we all like to go places where we hear those things all the time."

School was an opportunity

As an only child, school also offered her another opportunity. "It gave me a chance to be with other children," she said.

Collins shared her knowledge, even at a young age.

"There were many people in the town who could not read or write - grown-ups," she said. "So I would go from house to house during the week, write letters for people, and read their letters from relatives.

"So I guess I was always some kind of teacher."

Now, as a superintendent of her schools, she has found ways to convert her theory and her positive attitude into the schools' curricula.

Three- and 4-year-old children in Collins' classrooms learn to read in a few months. Grade-school students read Shakespeare and discuss Plato's philosophy.

"If you take a child from any home and teach (him) the great classics . . . and you give that child first-rate skills, teach (him) to speak in complete sentences and not accept any substandard grammar, you're going to have a bright child," said Collins.

"My definition of a traditional school is one where people, not just the students but the teacher, too, are addicted to learning."

Collins has been widely praised for her many achievements in educating all types of children. Still, she remains modest. When asked why so many people find her so valuable, she says, "I don't think it is so much about me. I think that every teacher that works with me - keep in mind that I train about (10,000 to 12,000) teachers and principals all over the world per year - and each of them has gone back and done the same thing."

What all these people emphasize is that all children have the potential to become high achievers if given the proper motivation and treatment.

"I think the best approach in every child's situation is feeling good," she commented. "It doesn't do any good to have brilliant children who grow up wanting to win at any cost, who grow up cheating, who grow up feeling badly about themselves."

Learned from parents

To drive this point home to parents, Collins' schools hold weekly classes helping them raise brighter, more positive children. In this, too, Collins takes a cue from her early years.

"My parents praised me a lot," she said. "Even if I was into mischief, they always prefaced the conversation by saying, `To be such a bright child, I can't believe you did this.' "

Collins has always felt a special compassion for children because she feels that as a group they receive less respect than many other minorities, and that their opinions and ideas are largely ignored.

"I think we talk a lot about the rights of children, but I really feel that they are secondary. We don't ask their decisions in major things that we do," she pointed out.

Remarking that children are in a generally powerless situation, Collins added that children are comparable to the homeless in America because both groups have little opportunity to determine what happens to them.

"More or less, it's like eating your food whether you like it or not," she said. "Just open your mouth, swallow it, and don't ask me what it is or why it is good."

Collins would like to see children given more choices, but added that it is important that they also are educated as to the responsibilities that come with those rights.

The one thing that Collins wants teachers everywhere to understand is that all children are achievers, "until they are taught too thoroughly what they can't achieve."

Pausing, she added, "And when everybody else says that it can't be done, that they should be the ones to prove that it can be done."

EDITED BY: Kelly Hartley, 15, and Tresha Charles, 11