Name: Tess
Home: St. Louis
In Praise of Memorization
Tom has been reading Brutal Journey: The Epic Story of the First Crossing of North America, and while doing so he has been sharing snippets about the book. He was telling me about how the Pope drew a line in the ocean dividing the "new" lands between Spain and Portugal. Suddenly I burst out with, "In Fourteen-hundred-ninety-three, / The pope divided the deep blue sea! Line of Demarcation!" Sure enough, a quick check of Wikipedia confirmed that I had a nugget of history lying dormant in my brain.
In 8th grade, Mrs. Beebe made us memorize dates, and I am still grateful to her for that. I know that Rome fell in 476 AD, that the last successful invasion of England was William the Conqueror in 1066. In 1215, the Magna Carta, the first document to limit the power of a king, was signed. In 1517, Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of the church in Wittenberg. In 1534 Henry VIII started the Church of England. The American Civil War ended in 1865. Somehow, these dates have stayed with me, even as the mounds of information I learned in AP US History vanished. While I don't claim that these dates are a substitute for an in-depth knowledge of history, they have always given me a structure in which to place new information.
Memorization has fallen out of vogue in secondary education, and that's a pity. When I taught high school, much to my students' dismay I required them to memorize things. The seniors were particularly resentful about memorizing the opening lines of the Canterbury Tales in Middle English. "What's the point?" they grumbled.
Now, especially, when anyone can find dates or lines of poetry with the click of a mouse, memorization would seem less important than ever. But I believe memorization is important because it allows information to become a part of us. Yes, you can find many online versions of Julius Caesar--but nothing compares to saying the words out loud and feeling the iambic pentameter with your own heartbeat. When I went to see Shakespeare in the Park two weeks ago, I was able to appreciate the performance all the more because I knew most of the major speeches so well that they were a part of me.
Without memorization, we allow information to flow past our eyes without internalizing it. I know it happens; I often find myself looking up the same words again and again on dictionary.com, when if I paused and made myself write them 20 times I would never have to do so again. Yes, we have access to an unprecedented amount of information, but that makes it all the more important to retain key points so we can structure and process what we find.
In 8th grade, Mrs. Beebe made us memorize dates, and I am still grateful to her for that. I know that Rome fell in 476 AD, that the last successful invasion of England was William the Conqueror in 1066. In 1215, the Magna Carta, the first document to limit the power of a king, was signed. In 1517, Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to the door of the church in Wittenberg. In 1534 Henry VIII started the Church of England. The American Civil War ended in 1865. Somehow, these dates have stayed with me, even as the mounds of information I learned in AP US History vanished. While I don't claim that these dates are a substitute for an in-depth knowledge of history, they have always given me a structure in which to place new information.
Memorization has fallen out of vogue in secondary education, and that's a pity. When I taught high school, much to my students' dismay I required them to memorize things. The seniors were particularly resentful about memorizing the opening lines of the Canterbury Tales in Middle English. "What's the point?" they grumbled.
Now, especially, when anyone can find dates or lines of poetry with the click of a mouse, memorization would seem less important than ever. But I believe memorization is important because it allows information to become a part of us. Yes, you can find many online versions of Julius Caesar--but nothing compares to saying the words out loud and feeling the iambic pentameter with your own heartbeat. When I went to see Shakespeare in the Park two weeks ago, I was able to appreciate the performance all the more because I knew most of the major speeches so well that they were a part of me.
Without memorization, we allow information to flow past our eyes without internalizing it. I know it happens; I often find myself looking up the same words again and again on dictionary.com, when if I paused and made myself write them 20 times I would never have to do so again. Yes, we have access to an unprecedented amount of information, but that makes it all the more important to retain key points so we can structure and process what we find.
posted by Tess | 1:46 PM
7 Comments:
Memorization, particularly of poetry, provides a consistent source of reliably correct and sophisticated language patterns. Otherwise the little blighters may have to rely on parents and peers for linguistic patterning!
In contrast, as a kid, we memorized Bible verses--especially once we were summer camp age. We could memorize verses toward camp attendance. I learned Psalm 119:105 because it was our "Pioneer Girls" verse/motto (church version of Girl Scouts) It says, "Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet, a light unto my path." This, along with, Psalm 119:11, "Thy Word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against thee," were taught to us as good reasons to learn Scripture.
Though I don't remember them all "word for word" I know the "address" (ie; the scripture reference), and/or the verse, and can definitely find them more easily. One reason it's hard to remember them "word for word" is I learned them in the King James version and now use a New International version of the Bible.
It's like poems I learned in school in Olde English and Shakespeare quotes I love and all kinds of things...their lyrical beautiful words and prose are precious to me.
Hh
You make such a good point. I think that "memory skills" and listening skills in general are greatly lacking - and I include myself in that pool.
Part of it, I think, is the great availabilty of information (eg why should I memorize that when I can just look it up?), coupled with sheer general information overload that we experience on a daily basis.
To memorize something and to understand it (a prayer, a poem, etc) -- is to really own it, right?
And by the way, I was reading my email, reciting a grocery list and listening to a conference call for work while typing that last comment, so I may not remember anything!!!
Just kidding of course :)
I've been thinking about this since yesterday. I absolutely think memorization is a valuable practice. I think it's been misused in schools (emphasizing rote memorization over in-depth knowledge) and therefore gotten a bad rap. But it's really a great way to exercise the brain...and make certain key points almost instinctive. Memorizing the multiplication tables in 3rd grade, for instance, has been tremendously helpful to me over the years.
I'm jealous. I don't remember much besides the 1492 date...and that one started to seem fraudulent in my eyes. Columbus didn't discover America, did he? People were already here. The Norse settlers were here previous. The Celts, etc.
Late to this because I was out of town, but my argument in favor of memorization (particularly as an historian) is in the ability to make connections. If you know significant dates across countries (for example, that Richard the Lion-Hearted and Genghis Khan were nearly contemporaries) you can be quicker to spot trends of civilization and societal movements. Also, with regard to poetry, it enhances an understanding of vocabulary beyond simple definitions. Shakespeare in particular is good for understanding alternate or unusual meanings for words, all of which adds to spoken eloquence. Grammar becomes more natural and "right sounding" above regular vernacular speech. Home educators Jesse Wise and Susan Wise Bauer called memorization the "pegs" on which knowledge is hung. Without those grounding pegs, information and concepts simply float around unmoored by hard fact. Can you tell I'm a big fan of memorization?? Not for its own sake, like old-style dry toast history teaching, but for the enhancement of larger concepts.
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