Memorization Is Still a Necessary Skill | Intellectual Takeout
"With another school year about to start, here’s
a bit of advice from a recently retired college history teacher.
Beware of teachers whose opening day gambit assures all new students that they have little or nothing to worry about on the following front:
none of that dreaded memory work will be asked for, much less required, in this course. (Hooray, hooray!!)
If you hear something like that from your instructor/professor, you can certainly be sure that the individual who is theoretically in charge of the class is doing his or her best to make nice.
It’s also a good bet that something else, something larger and more damaging, is going on:
you’re essentially being told that memorization is old-fashioned, passé, and otherwise beside the point.
...In fact, I would add that if you had a teacher spouting that first day “make nice” pablum with which I began this essay, you should be aware that one or two additional things likely just happened:
either you were just lied to or it should have immediately dawned on you that you were embarking on a college course that had minimal substance to it.
Or both...
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