"Charlie O. Simms taught a Journalism 101 class at [[Beverly Hills]] High School. He started the first day of the class Ephron attended much the same way any journalism teacher would, by explaining the concept of a "lead". **He explained that a lead contains the why, what, when and who of the piece**. It covers the essential information. Then he gave them their first assignment: write a lead to a story. "Simms began by presenting the facts of the story: "**Kenneth L. Peters, the principal of Beverly Hills High School, announced today that the entire high school faculty will travel to Sacramento next Thursday for a colloquium in new teaching methods. Among the speakers will be anthropologist Margaret Mead, college president Dr. Robert Maynard Hutchins, and California governor Edmund 'Pat' Brown**." "The students hammered away o their manual typewriters trying to keep up with the teacher's pace. Then they handed in their rapidly written leads. Each attempted to summarise the who, what, where, and why as succinctly as possible: "Margaret Mead, Maynard Hutchins, and Governor Brown will address the faculty on ..."; "Next Thursday, the high school faculty will ..." Simms reviewed the students' leads and put them aside. "**He then informed them that they were all wrong. The lead to the story, he said, was "There will be no school Thursday**." --- **Tags** -- [[quotes]], [[teaching-anecdotes]], [[writing]], [[communication-skills]], [[journalism]], [[marketing]], [[story-bias]] **Source** -- [[202410111219 - B - Essentialism]]