[lbo-talk] In Praise of Rote Memorization

andie nachgeborenen andie_nachgeborenen at yahoo.com
Mon Jan 30 10:07:31 PST 2006


If you know stuff by heart:

(a) you can use it without having to look it up, making research, writing, and discussion better; you can also amuse yourself by going over poetry, drama, or whatever in your head; and it helps, for example, in working with the material, e.g., if you are putting on a play or constructing an interpretation;

(b) As Joanne said, memorization reveals to you things about the structure and meaning of the words that mere reading does not; you have to know the stiff pretty intimayely to memorize it;

(c) It's good mental discipline, builds neural connections, and doesn't really go away, just as old learned pieces of music stay with you.

(d) It's a way of making the work "yours" in a way that merely passing your eyes over it does not. Without perhaps intending it I bet a lot of us have, though constant and repeated reading, committed to memory substantial chunks of old Chuck's writings, which are integrated into our souls in a way that stuff we mere read is not.

(e) Depending on what you know you can entertain people. My late MiL, who had learned a lot of bad but gripping verse (The Highwayman, The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere), was a big hit with the kids when they were little, who loved to hear her recite these poems. She could also do the first 100 or lines of the preface to the Canterbury Tales in Middle English, which also amazed and amused the kids. And a lot of Hiawatha and Evangeline and Sir Walter Scott.

And that is just a start.

--- Charles Brown <cbrown at michiganlegal.org> wrote:


> Of course, there are obvious instances when rote
> learning is necessary, such as in learning a foreign
> language or spelling. But what is the role of rote
> learning in other cases such as poetry memorization
> (besides showing off)?
>
> -Thomas
>
> ^^^^
> CB: To get good grades.
>
>
> ___________________________________
>
http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
>

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