This really hits home with me:

Remember the essays you had to write in high school? Topic sentence, introductory paragraph, supporting paragraphs, conclusion. The conclusion being, say, that Ahab in Moby Dick was a Christ-like figure.

Oy. So I'm going to try to give the other side of the story: what an essay really is, and how you write one. Or at least, how I write one.

…

The most obvious difference between real essays and the things one has to write in school is that real essays are not exclusively about English literature. Certainly schools should teach students how to write. But due to a series of historical accidents the teaching of writing has gotten mixed together with the study of literature. And so all over the country students are writing not about how a baseball team with a small budget might compete with the Yankees, or the role of color in fashion, or what constitutes a good dessert, but about symbolism in Dickens.

With the result that writing is made to seem boring and pointless. Who cares about symbolism in Dickens? Dickens himself would be more interested in an essay about color or baseball.

How did things get this way? …

That's all I've read so far, but he certainly has my attention.

If I ever get to teach writing, I hope it will be by helping my pupils to write about what they want to write about, and to think about what they want to think about. Letters soliciting career advice. Explications of the Premier League scoring system and what difference three points for a win instead of two has made. Why rap is great despite what parents and teachers (and I) say about it. Why I am bored. Which were the best movies this summer. Why girls are stupid. Why boys are stupid. Why boys are still stupid but …

You can be logical and entertaining and informative and persuasive about anything. I strongly agree that confining it to being logical and entertaining and informative and persuasive about English literature is a big mistake.

Thanks to Arts & Letters Daily (which really is daily for me) for the link to this.

On the other hand, if you really are interested in symbolism in Dickens …