Students writing for an audience of one (the teacher) who is only looking to assess whether the proper information has been included in the proper format (i.e. regurgitation & rule-following) aren't really *writing*.

This is my answer to the question of why so many students I work with don't know how to organize paragraphs, for example. They've not be taught/encouraged to communicate but rather to fill in the blanks. That is not at all what we're doing here.

The world that such instruction prepares students for is a world of disconnectedness.

& the sad thing, for me, is seeing how students internalize this disconnect, imaging their challenges with learning as a kind of intellectual deficit when it's the dehumanizing task at hand that's responsible for the challenges in learning.