| How Many Geniuses Did You Know? | | | | 1967 to Famous Artists Schools, then a New |
| In a world of six billion, almost three-hundred | | | | York |
| million in the U.S. alone, how many people do you | | | | Stock Exchange company. |
| get to know that change learning for millions? | | | | 7. "And that was it? |
| Evelyn Wood was a knock-out, she created a | | | | Well, tough-stuff happens, and Evelyn was |
| system that graduatedtwo million, including the | | | | incapacitated by a stroke in 1976,though she |
| White house staff of Presidents Kennedy, | | | | continued to work on remedial-reading for kids for |
| Johnson, Nixon and Carter. | | | | years. Her husband |
| She was our business associate, mentor and | | | | Doug, passed on in 1987, and she moved to |
| personal guru. Her name today is still identified | | | | Tucson, Arizona. They had created afamily |
| with her creation - speed reading. What is more | | | | business in 1958 that became international, |
| important, her major contributions: using a pacer | | | | London, Paris, Mexico City,and left an educational |
| to guide our eyes, chunking strategies, and the | | | | legacy that has never been surpassed in the niche |
| use of peripheral-vision in reading, are accepted | | | | ofspeed reading. The New York Times offered a |
| internationallyas "obvious", and | | | | major obituary, as did every majorpaper in the |
| not-subject-to-questioning. | | | | U.S. Here how it started, as written by Lawrence |
| 1. "Was it all peaches-and-cream", she just | | | | Van Gelder. |
| announced her revolution and all the professionals | | | | "Evelyn Wood, whose search for a way to help |
| in reading said, "Sure, she's right, hooray!"?" | | | | troubled girls led to the developmentof speed |
| It sure seems that way in hind sight, but the | | | | reading techniques prescribed by Presidents and |
| reality was that 95% of colleges professors | | | | endorsed by multitudes,died on Saturday, in |
| including the deans of the Teaching Schools, | | | | Hospice Family Care in Tucson, Arizona." |
| thought she was a fraud, out to grab as much | | | | 8. "What was Evelyn Wood's background?" |
| loot as possible, and slide out of town before the | | | | She was born in Logan, Utah, received her |
| tar-and-feathers. The head of Columbia University | | | | bachelor's degree in 1929 and in 1958her Master's |
| School of Education, Ruth Strang,told us that she | | | | at the University of Utah. She was a soft-spoken |
| would like to "cast-the-first-stone", or in the | | | | school teacher whostarted a reading revolution |
| alternative, have *Evelyn Wood run out of town | | | | that continues today. She taught at Jordan High |
| on the proverbial "rail". | | | | Schoolin Utah, and was a guidance counselor to |
| Educators did not react kindly to someone who | | | | girls who were not only bad learners,and were |
| told them in the kindest of tones, that they were | | | | failing, but were underachievers with serious |
| directly responsible for kids and adults | | | | "personality" difficulties. |
| hating-to-read, and for the abysmally low test | | | | She created a special remedial reading program |
| scoresin reading by students in the U.S. | | | | for them, and like a dumb tv show,they changed |
| 2. "Did Evelyn Wood present the evidence to | | | | their stripes and became geniuses! Well not really, |
| prove her system was best?" | | | | but they learned tolove reading the Evelyn Wood |
| Have you ever tried to offer logic and reason to | | | | way, and aced their classes, and became better |
| a burning-fire? It's best to justdo your thing and | | | | "adjusted" too. |
| ignore the sarcasm and skepticism by people who | | | | 9. "Nice "soap-opera", but so what?" |
| havebeen "emotionally (amygdala) hijacked". We | | | | What Evelyn Wood learned from the girls was |
| went directly to parents of kidsin private schools, | | | | that the "faster" she got them toread, the more |
| and they said, " Yes, help our kids to stop hating | | | | they remembered. Now that was weird when the |
| school." | | | | entire U.S.education system believed and taught |
| Next, we traveled to colleges and professional | | | | that comprehension improves only whenyou read |
| schools nationally, and got the studentsto sit for | | | | S-L-O-W-L-Y, and one word at a time. |
| Evelyn's speed reading course because they just | | | | She decided four things about learning:a) When |
| couldn't keep up with theirclass assignments. Many | | | | the girls read VERTICALLY down the page, |
| of them admitted studying till 3 AM, popping pills | | | | instead of linearly left-to-right,they had rock-hard |
| to stayawake, and were still on the verge of | | | | concentration, better comprehension, and |
| "dropping-out" because they just read tooslowly | | | | improved theirlong-term memory. Why? Because |
| for university level study. Thousands graduated | | | | they were reading with a "context", and an |
| from her Evelyn Wood readingprogram learning | | | | "overview" of the text.b) The girls were reading |
| three-times faster, with the same comprehension | | | | "groups" of words at a time (with each eye |
| or better. Studentsfrom Harvard, Yale, and | | | | fixation pause),and not how the world read - one |
| Princeton, and fifty more of the most prestigious | | | | multi-syllable word at a time. They were |
| universitiesin the U. S. took money out of their | | | | readingthree words at a time.c) The class of |
| own pockets to enjoy benefits their schoolswould | | | | personality-challenged girls was enjoying and |
| not offer - reading three books, articles or | | | | remembering whatthey read and were not |
| reports in the time others could onlyhope to read | | | | "regressing" like the average U.S. college |
| and remember - a single one. | | | | graduate,twenty-times per page. They were |
| 3. "What about adults?" | | | | speed reading and loving it.d) Lastly, they could |
| We trained lawyers, doctors and engineers in | | | | read three times faster with improved |
| Evelyn Wood's strategies at theirown offices (in | | | | comprehension notjust in "baby-stuff" (Reader's |
| groups of 25), and soon had graduated thousands | | | | Digest level of difficulty), but in non-fiction |
| of professionalswho were using speed reading in | | | | booksand their texts. |
| their practices. Sure, they were frightened | | | | 10. "And she took those ideas and built her empire |
| aboutmissing a "word", or even a comma in a | | | | on it, right?" |
| contract, but it became evident thatthis was not | | | | Not so faster, she went back to the University of |
| SKIMMING, but detailed SCANNING, taking in each | | | | Utah for more research, gother Master's in |
| and everyword like a computer. | | | | Speech, and her Dean asked her to teach SPEED |
| 4. "The keys to her success were in the details | | | | READINGto the college students. They called her |
| or in the advertising?" | | | | class - Speech 21, no fancy titles. |
| We covered the U.S. in newsprint and public | | | | In all our dealings with Evelyn she was modest |
| relations; she inundated us withstudents after | | | | about her accomplishments. |
| appearing on the Johnny Carson show, and we | | | | "My reading technique required a receptive mind, a |
| became the General | | | | student who wantsto change, In fact the |
| Motors of private education. | | | | program is "auto-didactic", self-taught through |
| What delighted us was Evelyn Wood continued to | | | | practiceor it is a bunch of junk. These techniques |
| research the sciences, firstfor evidence that her | | | | are actually "Comprehension by |
| course was the "real-deal", even though the public | | | | Accumulation", the faster they read the more |
| was alreadyconvinced, and second, for | | | | they get "it". Speed is not mostimportant, but |
| improvements in how we read, concentration, | | | | only through speed do you get the high level of |
| comprehension,and long-term memory. She was | | | | comprehensionand long-term memory." |
| always prepared to change her ideas if it | | | | She wrote a book called "Reading Skills" to help |
| wouldadd to the student's ability to | | | | young students adopt hertechniques, and the |
| process-information better. She was not a | | | | book was a commercial success, adopted by |
| "saint",just proud of being the best in the field. | | | | many U.S.school districts. It was her mentor at |
| 5. "What did she add?" | | | | the university, Dr. C. Lowell Lees, whosaid, |
| She learned from ophthalmologists how she could | | | | "Evelyn, get this speed reading out to the public, |
| improve speed readingby training our peripheral | | | | and you will bemaking yourself useful to the |
| vision; so she introduced "warm-up" exercises | | | | world." |
| toexcite our "soft-vision", and eliminate | | | | 11. "How fast did she read?" |
| "tunnel-vision", reading one-word-at-a-time. | | | | She perused text at 2,700 words per minute with |
| That change added another 10% to how | | | | 85% comprehension, andonce she read something |
| effectively our students ace theirclasses. | | | | it was hers for life. She never took |
| Evelyn tested the recommendations of vision | | | | herselfseriously or thought she was a celebrity - |
| specialists who claimed "Overlining"was an | | | | Evelyn Wood was always aschool-teacher from |
| improvement over her standard "Underlining". We | | | | Salt Lake City, and a life-long learner. The last |
| tested the changeand found it added 5% to the | | | | timewe spoke to her she asked if we had come |
| student's learning process, shorted their | | | | up with an improvement overusing the hand as a |
| "learning-curve" because our retinas do best with | | | | pacer. |
| exposures that enter as a SWEEPING | | | | The SpeedLearning Institute, which has its seeds |
| ARC, and "overlining" fit the bill. | | | | in the teaching of Evelyn |
| 6. "I'm convinced that the program worked, was | | | | Wood, is the home of the 20 minute hour, and |
| she personally successful?" | | | | the RASTER MASTER, aneon-helium laser PACER, |
| Evelyn Wood was happily married to "Doug", a | | | | that uses a hand-held tachistoscope in a penform |
| native of Salt Lake City, theyhad a daughter, | | | | to have our "eyes-follow-a-moving object". It is |
| Carol, who gave Evelyn four grandchildren. Yes, | | | | the "beam" thatis the advancement over the |
| she did very wellwhen the company was sold in | | | | "hand", thanks to Evelyn Wood. |