Memorization Again

Memorization has a bad name in much of modern education. Rather than the pursuit of "rote learning" or "rote memorization," educators are interested in teaching "meaning" or "deep structure" or "interrelationships of phenomena." The older I get the more I realize, however, that the key to broad knowledge, criticism of ideas and precise formulation of one's own theories is having a rich supply of knowledge at one's fingertips. This is done primarily through a disciplined system of memorization and reflection, or, alternatively said, deep acquaintance with material so that it is effectively stored in the caverns of memory and able to be extracted at will at any later time. This essay will make one preliminary point about memorizing and then illustrate my contention about the importance of memorizing by showing how it opens vastly different worlds to us.

Thinking about Memorization

The basic question for education in 2010 is not whether people will memorize things but what they will memorize. They will know things, and those things will be committed to memory, whether it is the names of the members of a certain band, the phone numbers of friends (speed dials, I suppose, obviates this), lyrics of songs, facts about their sibling's inhaler or a host of other things. People will learn facts or techniques; the question is whether they will be encouraged to develop this kind of knowledge by teachers. People tend to teach, however, in ways they were taught (if they liked those methods), and very few people today were taught the value and pleasure of memorization. It takes hard word and discipline, to be sure, but the fruit it yields is so valuable and tasty as to last for a lifetime.

The principal hurdle to get over is to separate the word "rote" from "memorization" so that the phrase "rote memorization" isn't used. I don't use the phrase principally because of the "bogeyman" nature of it. Many use it to suggest a kind of mindless learning of a list of things, things that are spewed back without any thought or understanding. My entire point, however, is that memorization, done in a proper way, aids learning and so builds capacity in the mind that through it you have the possibility of creating people with truly stunning knowledge abilities. An added, but related, benefit of vast memorization of things is that it becomes the key to further learning, more intimate connection with people, and more creative ways to see the interrelationship of things in the world. But the basis of all of this is a disciplined approach to the learning and retention of vast amounts of material.

A Few Examples

In the last few weeks, I have come across several fields of knowledge that I would like to know much more intimately. How, for example, do you learn some basic and important things about: (1) the aromas of coffee; (2) basic principles of particle physics; (3) the names of lots of plants; and (4) the original system of Carolus Linnaeus to classify plants in 1735? You might want to learn any of a number of other things, such as the names and jersey numbers of members of this year's Oakland Raiders, the career grand slam titles of Roger Federer, the periodic table of elements, the bones in the hand, etc. My contention is that you learn these things best by a three-fold process: (a) committing to memory enough pieces of data from that field to feel that you are learning its basic vocabulary; (b) adding a few pieces of knowledge to every fact you are learning; (c) using some of the items you are learning in conversation with people who really know the subject fully, and letting them take you yet further. By doing this you will begin to appreciate the value of precision and thoroughness in learning, learn how to formulate questions about a field, be able to come at a field "from a different angle" (because your unorthodox method, memorization, will make you see different facts than those who are all educated in similar ways; they will have collective blind spots that simply won't allow them to ask questions of substance that you easily can bring up); be able to integrate new knowledge into what you have already learned; and so see things in a different or unique way as to be able to revolutionize the study of field after field. Thus, in my judgment, memorization is the key to the revamping of knowledge, the framing of knoweldge in ways that really serve us in our day.

But, it must be admitted, memorization takes some time and discipline. When I was first dissuaded from memorization in 1971, it was with the following argument: "Bill, by the time you memorize ten verses (I was trying to commit the Biblical book of Proverbs to memory), I will not only have read the entire book, but will have hand the chance to read commentaries on select difficult passages." That is, I was discouraged from memorization because it is a "slow cut" to learning. And, indeed, there is a lot of truth in that allegation. You learn much more "slowly" in memorization. At least you do for about the first year or so that you engage in it. But, after that time, your learning curve is so fast and great, and your retention so amazing, that you become, as it were, a different level of human being, with respect to your knowledge. But even as you memorize, you are able to frame things in much more interesting ways than if you didn't, principally because you have an array of new and precious material right at your fingertips.

The next essay shows how memorization would aid you in the four tasks listed above.

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