I agree with you--reading and writing must both be done frequently. Ideally both are occurring constantly. However, the problem with "learning to structure you

I agree with you--reading and writing must both be done frequently. Ideally both are occurring constantly. However, the problem with "learning to structure your thoughts in an essay" is that most schools teach one style of essay, which is a "baby thesis" (or a five-paragraph essay with in-text citations, written without use of the third person.) It's incredibly boring, and what's more it's not a convention that the majority of great essay writers in the past stuck to. Furthermore, the choice of subject matter is decided by the teacher, which means that there isn't any chance to develop your skills based on subject material that you actually care about. If the only exposure to essay writing that kids have is "mandatory topics on mandatory novels in a mandatory framework", it's highly unlikely that any but the top 5-20% will actually develop any real taste for reading and writing that persists into adulthood. I would prefer to blow open the playing field and allow students to submit any kind of writing, including first-person and personal opinions, and then have the option to publish the essays centrally so they can read each others' work and respond, as occurs in adult society. The writing quality and volume should be mandatory, but the form and content should not.