[lbo-talk] In Praise of Rote Memorization

Guest lbodownload at yahoo.com
Sun Jan 29 03:45:32 PST 2006


In response to yoshie who started this branch of the thread, yeah there's a place for rote memorization, and yes american schools could use more of it, but asian kids aren't quite as clever as she and they seem to think.

Nor have chinese schools quite struck the perfect balance between rote learning and independent thinking or even practicing the skills that rote learning is supposed to give you. A typical adult taiwanese ESL student has memorized thousands of vocabulary words. He works VERY hard and has a sincere desire to learn the lanuage. He is not stupid, may be a computer engineer or a doctor, but his actual fluency remains at the level of "I velly like amellican basket-a-ball" or "the patient have much trouble with the dermal necrosis."

Taiwanese schools simply move too fast. You're constantly cramming in more information, preparing for the next test, and being tested at a level at least a year ahead of where you actually are. You've got no time to rest, digest, and consolidate. It's quite common for every student in a class to routinely fail every test even at less intense non-academic high schools. Can't tell you how many times I've had a kid glide into class just absolutely beaming, walking on sunshine...because he scored a 70 on his mid-terms! a 70! The best in the class!

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