I spent my school years from grade 4 or so to grade 10 writing the most awful bog-standard school-style essays for assignments. The 3-paragraph structure, the

I spent my school years from grade 4 or so to grade 10 writing the most awful bog-standard school-style essays for assignments. The 3-paragraph structure, the rigid sentences, the fact regurgitation... I got good grades, but I'm sure the teachers hated reading them as much as I hated writing them. In a similar timeframe (starting from grade 7 or 8), I started writing online. I mostly participated in online debate forums because I couldn't find anyone with (in my highschool opinion) an open mind to argue with in my small town. I'd happily write detailed 12-paragraph posts on the topic dejour in a natural voice with independently researched and well-cited sources. I distinctly remember being in 11th grade when a switch flipped. I was writing another dreadful essay on the meaning behind The Scarlet Letter for an English class when it occurred to me: what if I wrote this like I was posting on onlinedebate.net? Instead of writing a "persuasive essay" as half a decade of school had taught me, I wrote A Post arguing a point like the internet had taught me. I got an A and the teacher loved it. I wrote everything from there on out like how I actually wrote, not how I thought HS essays were supposed to be written. I don't know that I have a strong lesson from this. I learned nothing about how to write from school and a lot from the internet. No idea if that's generalizable, though. All I can say with confidence is that I hated (and still hate) The Highschool Way of writing essays.