As a student, you are expected to, and required to, master certain objectives and meet certain curriculum goals. Your teacher is supposed to help you get there, but (ultimately) it's up to you to learn, think, process, and apply this information. Is this a bad thing? Not really. Why? Because these skills have been selected for you to master so that you might be able to easily transition to work, college, and even graduate school. There are additional resources that can help you. For example, the Virginia Department of Education publishes practice writing prompts for the End Of Course (EOC) writing test. How easy would it be to complete a practice prompt once a month on your own, have a teacher look at it, and be ready to ace that test by the time you reach that grade? Will you use writing skills again? Absolutely! So, below are some links that you may explore (and you can ask if you aren't sure what they mean). Should you have all information available to you? Absolutely! So make good use of it. :-)