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I agree that memorization can detract from more important skills and concepts. We don't have enough time for all of it, and if memorizing displaces thinking or understanding, we lose something valuable.

On the other hand, memorizing poems, quotations, formulae, facts, and dates can enrich our minds and enable richer discourse. Ghangas' point--that the memorized material becomes an integral part of the life of a memorizer--is indisputable. The question you raise is whether we do anything more than merely memorize material. I think we should--and I think that memorizing it can enable mental agility just as often as it can detract from time to think.

posted 5 years, 2 months ago
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I agree that memorization can detract from more important skills and concepts. We don't have enough time for all of it, and if memorizing displaces thinking or understanding, we lose something valuable.

On the other hand, memorizing poems, quotations, formulae, facts, and dates can enrich our minds and enable richer discourse.

posted 5 years, 2 months ago
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As a poetry teacher participating in Poetry Out Loud, I don't see anything distressing about discussing poetry on Pi Day. I try to do some cross-disciplinary work in my English classes, and the rhythms of poetry offer a marvelous opportunity to incorporate math. For centuries poets (and their readers) have been good counters and measurers. Why accept the traditional fragmentation and departmentalization of the academic world in the past century or so?

posted 5 years, 2 months ago
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