Reading and Writing

So, just a quick vent for today. I spent the last few weeks reading Kelly Gallagher's Teaching Adolescent Writers. The author is pretty much THE english teacher that I wish I could be... he's really intelligent, and his books taught me more about teaching English than any of my Master's coursework. In any case, after completing the book, I am realizing one of the major faults with our system is the idea that reading and writing should both be taught in the subject called English. This is absolutely ludicrous. The two are completely different skills, and even though writing makes a person a better reader, and reading makes a person a better writer, there is no way to sufficiently teach both of these skills within a school year. I think that it would be far better to split the two, and instead of having a block class, have a different writing and reading class. Of course there would be overlap; students need to read models of what they are trying to write. And, students need to write to help process their thoughts about literature. But man, it would be phenomenal to actually divide up these skills and make them taught in separate classes in high school. Thoughts?