Evelyn Wood Replies

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

I would like to thank the CRIMSON for offering space for a rebuttal of the article of May 3 about Evelyn Wood Reading Dynamics. After discussing the apparent nature of the offending article with several of our friends in Cambridge I have decided to offer only the following in reply.

Of the 24 paragraphs in the article, almost all are either wholly or in part in error; the others are irrelevant. The student who would like details in refutation of these paragraphs is invited to call or visit any of our institutes at his convince. Meanwhile, the examination of one paragraph, typical in its lack of information of most of the others, should suffice for providing insight into the nature of the article as a whole.

This paragraph, the last in the article, refers to a matter of hearsay, a statement attributed to one of our friends and advocates, Senator William Proxmire. That statement is misleading and in effect false. It is not in the context in which it was related to me in 1961.

Hearsay aside, the record provides the following:

"(August 2, 1963

I am happy to be able to say that I found the Evelyn Wood Reading Dynamics Institute course extremely helpful to me. It increased my reading speed and rate of comprehension tremendou'sy. To be able to read quickly and retain the essence of the material is particularly important to me since the amount of reading I must do daily as a senator is voluminous. I feel that the course has been of great benefit to me in my official work.

William Proxmire, U.S.S." (June 11, 1965):

Reporter: How many words a minute do you read?

Senator Proxmire: Depends on what I'm reading. I read the routine stuff at the rate of about 2500 words a minute now."

Excessive zeal and information hastily gathered under the stress of bias should not be substitute for the careful consideration of facts or for their interpretation and understanding.

To borrow, if I may, a few words from the CRIMSON article of April 27: "....They are everywhere. Walk into Lamont and you see three of four of them, hands tracing large 'S' patterns with their fingers down the pages. And there are many more to come..."

They, our students, should be everywhere. With diligence and effort on their part, they soon will be.

Yours truly,

John Kilgo

Institute Director

Evelyn Wood Reading

Dynamics Institute. Boston