Chapter 7 MTJ/why do teachers make writing so lame?

I think I underlined or highlighted just about every sentence in Chapter 7. And here is my question...why haven't English teachers figured out that kids don't care about half the crap they are forced to write about?? Do teachers not understand that if the students are not interested/passionate about a subject then they are not going to enjoy writing a paper about it? In my practicum, the students have been working on one paper since I've been there (going on five weeks now...). First of all, no matter what the subject is, if it takes five weeks to complete then the kids are going to start hating the assignment. Second of all, the paper is supposed to be about a celebrity (lame), but the teacher gave a list of approved celebrities that they could write their papers on. If the kids couldn't decide on someone in about five minutes then the teacher chose someone for them (she usually forced them to write about Poe or Dickinson...not exactly what comes to mind when someone says "celebrities," but whatever). So basically these kids were limited from the very start of this unit. While I was reading chapter 7, the quote from Lori Shacreaw on page 215 seemed to relate to exactly what I'm struggling with right now. She basically says that effective writing blossoms from issues that are current, issues that could affect the students, and issues that could be controversial. These kids need to be excited about writing! And, um, the five paragraph paper over a celebrity didn't seem to excite anybody (shocking...). Are we limiting kids because we're afraid of what they might write? Are we limiting their choices to make it easier on us as teachers? Why won't we let them explore subjects and write about their feelings?
One other thing I loved about chapter 7 was the notion that kids don't always follow the traditional model of completing an outline, completing a rough draft, revising it, completing a second draft, editing it, and then completing a final draft. Writing doesn't happen in these neat precise steps. It's a messy process that goes in a different order every time. Why force our students to follow certain procedures for writing? I wouldn't want someone telling me that I couldn't do a final draft until I had an outline and two previous drafts. I don't write like that and I never have. I just sit down, write, and revise as I go.

I'll finish ranting now. I just really enjoyed chapter 7 because it made me think about what writing process I'm going to have in my classroom next year...it definitely won't be a ridgid or forced process, and it hopefully won't be as lame as some we read about in chapter 7 (ex page 211, 212, and 213).