The staff at West Seattle High School has voted to reduce classroom time from 55 to 50 minutes. They have shortened the school day by 15 minutes, lengthened lunch, lengthened morning break, added in 30 minutes of completely unsupervised free time on Mondays (for all but freshmen) and 30 minutes of free time for all students (staff office hours) on Fridays.

They posted the new bell schedule on the Web site and hardly anyone is complaining, so they think you agree, "less is more." Less is more? Now that's using your thinking cap! I hope they staff up at McDonalds and Safeway during the 30 minute break periods on Mondays and Fridays. (These are 20 minute breaks with five minute passing periods on either side - that adds up to 30 minutes. Do you think a teenager can get into trouble in 30 minutes?)

Five minutes over the course of a school year, amounts to 15 hours of instruction for each class. That is three weeks of class time lost in each class. How will less teaching improve student performance? How will a 9 percent reduction in the time students have with their teachers not matter? The teachers have a loud voice - students have no voice.

Letters from Susan Ders