This may be a surprising opinion coming from a writer, but I believe kids should not focus on writing essays in elementary school. I work at a tutoring center, and I am constantly being pushed to help fourth graders write essays, but it goes against everything I believe in. In elementary school, kids should be learning grammar, punctuation, vocabulary, and spelling. And they should be reading, reading, reading, and reading.

Instead of having their love of writing beaten out of them with pointless...