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Show (SQDD feedback a kind, intelligent and sensitive sensi-tive woman a person who has dedicated a large share of her life to the Milford school system. And I know that she was deeply hurt not only by the article that held her up to public exercration, but also because no one came forward in her defense and therefore the charge of symbolic sym-bolic incompetence stood against her unanswered. I feel a sense of anger at her administrators, the school board and even her friends who failed to come to her defense. de-fense. But I feel the strongest sense of ire and embarrassment embarrass-ment toward all of her former form-er students, especially those who have breezed through my classes here at SUSC because be-cause of the outstanding background back-ground she gave them, who read the article that lm-p lm-p uned her Integrity and abili -ty and sat mute and let the charges stand. Fie, Fie! You should be ashamed, chagrined cha-grined and very embarrassed, embar-rassed, for you have failed a friend who never failed you, and you do, indeed, owe this woman an apology. There is a large difference differ-ence between pointing out areas of weakness and totally humilating a department, program or teacher on the basis of incompetence. It is not the purpose of an examination ex-amination team to humiliate, which has somehow inadvertently inad-vertently happened to this person. This must be amis-take, amis-take, it is most certainly an error; and even though no one can ever give Alice Elmer back the two years of suffering she has gone through, this should be publicly pub-licly corrected. Sincerely, David Lee, Chairman Department of English Mr. Red Wilson, Editor Beaver County News Milford, Utah 84751 Dear Mr. Wilson: I am writing in reference to a statement that appeared in the Beaver County News, February 19, 1976. On page ' one I read, "the State Team auditing the Small School Program statistical report visited the district and reported re-ported the English program in Milford was the weakest program in the school . . ." I realize that a great deal of time has passed since this article was published, : but it only came to my at-: at-: tention on Friday of this past ; week and I feel I must re- - spond. : To begin, no examination board or State Team can : validly or perfectly audit a school or program In one of i their three day visits. I know ; this because I have been a : member of those teams on : several occasions. The team visits the school, notes commendations com-mendations and recommen- dations, then attempts to - make a genreal statement re -: gardlng each individual department de-partment or program. Ihave never seen the teams attempt a comparison or contrast . examination in which the various programs are rated : against each other. Therefore, There-fore, I seriously doubt the authenticity of this statement. state-ment. However, if this statement state-ment Is valid, then Milford must have a completely superior su-perior school system. As an expert and profession in the field of English educa- tion, I can assure you the department of English in the Milford school system, under the direction of Mrs. Alice Elmer, Is highly competent. com-petent. In fact, on numerous occasions oc-casions I have made the statement that after six years of teaching in this area, I can easily pinpoint or locate most of my students as to their high school background back-ground after two weeks of class, and that there are three or perhaps four schools In this area that consistently produce students of a high caliber and Milford heads 1 this list. To my knowledge, I have never had a student from Milford High School that I considered to be unprepared un-prepared for basic communication commu-nication and composition on the college level. To go a step beyond the general, after a short search through class rolls, I have located my records on eight M ilford students who signed up for my classes in English 101 or 202 (freshman and sophomore composition), and I find that their average grade point was 3.26, or a high B level. My overall grade point average In my composition classes Is generally gen-erally in the 2.50 to 2.75 area, which means that Milford Mil-ford students generally receive re-ceive at least a full half grade higher than other students. stu-dents. I would be less than honest if I did not reflect a sense of my anger in this letter. While I do not know Mrs. Elmer well, I do know her as |