Saturday Sayings: The 90 Percent

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Lucy's quote here has intrigued and saddened me for years.  I could say it's even haunted me at times.  Obviously she's making a point that most of our kids show up to school as five-year olds thinking they're writers.  Somehow and somewhere along the way, not many years down the line most likely, they forget they ever thought such a thing.  It's the furthest thing from their minds in fact, and too many of our 90% become children whose belief in their writing is quite dismal.  Even many of us adults don't remember those early, numbered days of believing in our own writing abilities.  Wouldn't you agree with the following statement?

"It's interesting to me that many, many adults will define themselves as 'readers' but not as 'writers.'" Katie Wood Ray, The Writing Workshop: Working Through the Hard Parts 31

How does this happen?  I want to point my finger somewhere, and I don't know where to point it.  Is it the curriculum?  Is it a writing program that's at fault?  Are parents part of the problem?  Are we teachers to blame?  Maybe it's a combination of factors.  I do have my own hunches, but I'm going to keep them to myself (shocking, I know).  In any case, I don't want to point my finger just for the sake of pointing my finger.  I want to know the source of this sad dilemma.  I hope we can find out and fix it, because the 90% deserve better.