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Show LETTER TO THE EDITOR Mr. Henry Louden, Director of Secondary Education in one of the school systems in Australia, asked the State Board of Education to direct him to a high school with a small population that was doing some special things in providing quality education for the students. We recommended that he visit Parowan High School which he did on April 19. It occurred to me that you might want to print his evaluation of the school in your paper. His comments were as follows: This note is to thank you for setting up my visit to Parowan. It was a good selection and one which suited my needs admirably. ad-mirably. With an average of 40 students per grade spread over six grades, the principal was forced to abandon rigid grade levels for instruction. He has some good staff members to take the lead in a team teaching situation and the result is a very nicely organized school. What is so attractive is that the form of organization was not grafted on; it is a response to the needs of a fairly difficult situation as far as school organization is concerned. There is room for further development, and thought is being given to this. I spent a long day in the school--from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.--but I think I understand it. Some of the examples could readily be adopted at home. The staff there were very prompt to refute my basic contention that it is hard for a small secondary school to be strong on intellectual development, develop-ment, and I found their confidence con-fidence most inspiring. The principal, Mr. Dotson, could not have done more to help me! I think maybe he was gratified that his school had been selected, and he made sure that it was presented in the best light. He gave me copies of all of his organization material, and I will take this home to discuss with some of my people. As you can gather from all of this, I am more than pleased with the results of the Parowan visit. Not only is it a good school going well, but I think it has taught me something valuable. Naturally, of course, I found a few flaws here and there--nothing serious-and I found the ' staff were most pleasingly honest about all of this. They had identified some of their problems and they were working on them, which is as it should be. I found no evidence of extravagance ex-travagance in the school program. It was definitely in good shape by my standards as far as the economic aspect of running the school was concerned. con-cerned. This is a most important conclusion. Once again, many thanks. I am writing to Mr. Dotson shortly. Sincerely, G. Morris Rowley, Administrator Division of General Education |