High schools are not adequately preparing students for college or careers. The author proposes extending the school day from 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM to address this. With an increasingly sophisticated world requiring more skills, students need more time to learn. Currently, many students do little to no homework and have weak work ethics. Lengthening the school day would allow time for mandatory homework completion and extra studies to improve work ethic before students enter the workforce.

1. FIRST DRAFT (Body of letter = 358 words)
9010 Magnolia Avenue
Riverside, CA 92503
May 22, 2006
Press Enterprise
3512 Fourteenth Street
Riverside, CA 92501
Dear Editor:
High schools are supposed to be preparing students to go to college or enter the workforce. But too often
this is not happening. Presently, many students are not learning enough of either the skills or work ethic
they will need. For this reason, I propose high schools adopt an 8:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. school day.
As our world gets more sophisticated, the skills needed to survive are increasing rapidly, so it is logical
more time is needed to teach these skills. However, the school day has not been lengthened, and more and
more students are turning in less and less homework. It is appalling the number of teachers who report they
are failing huge numbers of students because those students do almost no homework or studying of any
kind. Equally appalling is the number of teachers who have given up on assigning homework since
students won’t do it.
One way around this problem is to have students stay at school longer. At the end of the school day, these
students would have a long class in which homework must be done. For students who profess to have no
homework, teacher verification could be sought. If the students truly had no homework, extra credit work
or extra studying could be done for exams or on areas of special interest to students.
Of course, many students will cry out against the length of an extended school day. In response, these
students should be reminded of the length of a typical work day. Students need to develop the stamina and
work ethic necessary to succeed in the work world. We are doing them a disservice when we let them
leave our school buildings several hours before any employee gets to leave his/her place of work.
Recent articles in your newspaper have complained about U.S. jobs being sent overseas. But if foreign
workers are better educated and have stronger work ethics, only a foolish company would rely on American
workers with our education system in its present state. Something needs to be done now to stop this trend.
An important first step is lengthening the school day in our high schools.
Sincerely,
Barbara McQueen

2. SECOND DRAFT (Body of letter = 240 words)
9010 Magnolia Avenue
Riverside, CA 92503
May 22, 2006
Press Enterprise
3512 Fourteenth Street
Riverside, CA 92501
Dear Editor:
High schools are supposed to be preparing students to go to college or enter the workforce. But many
students are not learning enough of either the skills or work ethic they will need. For this reason, I propose
high schools adopt an 8:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. school day.
As our world gets more sophisticated, the skills needed to survive are increasing rapidly, so it is logical
more time is needed to teach these skills. However, the school day has not been lengthened, and more and
more students are turning in less and less homework.
One way around both problems is to have a long class at the end of the school day in which homework
must be done. For students who profess to have no homework, teacher verification could be sought and
extra credit work or extra studying could be done for exams or on areas of special interest.
Students who cry out against the length of an extended school day should be reminded of the length of a
typical work day. Our students need to develop the stamina and work ethic necessary to succeed in the
work world before they join it.
If foreign workers are better educated and have stronger work ethics than we do, only a foolish company
would rely on American workers. Something needs to be done now to stop this trend. An important first
step is lengthening the school day in our high schools.
Sincerely,
Barbara McQueen