It’s that time of year: High school seniors everywhere are scrambling to apply to college. As a college admissions coach, part of my job is guiding them as they write the required essays.

Sadly, I am working with more and more students from public high schools in New Hampshire who struggle to express themselves in writing – certainly in word usage, sentence structure, punctuation, and grammar, but more importantly, in organization of thought, clarity, insight, and reflection.

These same young people tell me that they rarely write in school. When I ask a student for a writing sample from junior year, and she has only one from which to choose, it is troubling. When I ask a student how often he writes in English class, and he must stop and think about the last time he was asked to do so, it’s alarming.

Many parents seem unaware of this; they trust that their children have frequent writing assignments just as they had when they were in high school. They don’t. As for the parents who know that their kids can’t write, they have brought about an epidemic of another ilk: the rewriting of their kids’ college essays. This is not only unethical, it’s a symptom of the bigger problem.

This is a crisis. Students should be able to write a coherent 250-word essay on “Why XYZ College” or 600-word essay on a topic of their choice. Why is this so difficult for many of them?

Most public high schools in New Hampshire offer different levels of English classes: honors or college/career prep, sometimes A/B/C. Although none of our kids write enough in school, the ones who take the less rigorous classes seem to be at a much greater disadvantage. But many of them are also going to college.

We need English classes for all college-bound students that challenge them to write well and write often. I believe that all high school students should be writing weekly, if not daily, in their English classes. I challenge every public high school in New Hampshire to present a weekly prompt to all students, with the expectation that they will write a 500-word essay to the best of their ability.

Better yet, let’s start this in middle school. Best yet, start it in first grade, asking the students to write a few words, with the assignment increasing in rigor and expectation every year. The topic would change every week, and students could be involved in generating those topic ideas. The details are of little importance; let’s get kids thinking and writing.

We cannot conceive of the jobs that will exist 20 years from now. In this age of information, we have everything we need to know at the touch of our fingertips. But who will be able to communicate that information in a coherent, articulate manner?

In the 21st century, those who can communicate clearly and effectively will be employable. They are the voices that will be heard – and listened to. Do we really want to limit that opportunity to the graduates of elite prep schools that have the writing curricula we remember from our childhood?

It began with a chisel and a stone. At its peak, we had William Shakespeare and William Faulkner. Are we complacent enough to accept texting as our future?

I implore school boards, curriculum directors, and superintendents all over the Granite State to demand more writing in their English classes. The cycle of life is such that we will be handing this world over to our kids in the not-so-distant future. They have shown us that they have a strong desire to make our world a better place in so many ways. Let us equip them with the tools they will need to use their voices to make the difference they seek to make.

(Nancy Steenson of Danville is a college admissions coach.)