If I'd limited my writing practice and technique to what was required and taught in K-12 school I'd have been unable to do that, too. It seems ridiculous but ar

If I'd limited my writing practice and technique to what was required and taught in K-12 school I'd have been unable to do that, too. It seems ridiculous but arguing on the Internet taught me how to write lean, clear arguments that could stand up to being kicked around a bit. Not school. School just taught me how to pad papers to hit a word count and conform to silly "essay" formats. What was taught in middle and high school writing wasn't even useful for college, let alone crafting text that anyone who's not being paid to read your work would ever choose to pick up. It's like attending a shop class that uses made-up tools and materials that don't work very well, don't exist outside shop classes, and aren't even very similar to their counterparts that do. Then the assignments all involve making things that seemingly deliberately avoid teaching skills useful to building items anyone would ever want, for any purpose—the analogy's getting away from me here, but you get the point. I do think part of the problem is that good writing sense is, in part, developed by reading, and most kids never really pick up the reading bug and so don't have much hope of ever writing half-decently to begin with. But the classes, at least when I was in school, weren't doing anything for those of us who'd met that pre-requisite, either. I'm not sure who or what they're for.