We aimed to prove this book wrong!
On the book cover of 'Yo, Millard Fillmore', It claims that you can memorize all of the presidents in
20 minutes. We tried it, (just for fun!)
It did, indeed, take only 20 minutes!
What's more...
one week later with no practice...they can still do it! Pretty cool!
 
BUT...
is there any value in this?
Education is much more than rote memory and dry facts.
Here is what Charlotte Mason had to say:
But children 'ask for bread' and we 'give them a stone.' We give them dry facts about
things, and their minds don't even try to digest them. Instead, their minds vomit them out
(perhaps in the form of answers on a test?) But, if information relates to a principle and
if it's inspired by an idea, then it will be devoured enthusiastically. And that information
will be used to build onto the spiritual nature in the same way that food builds physical
tissue in the physical body.
Charlotte Mason also wrote this:
In order to memorize, we repeat a passage or series of points or names over and over, inventing little clues to help us. We can memorize a string of facts or words this way, and that memory is useful in the short term, but it isn't really assimilated. After its purpose is served, we forget it. That's the kind of memory work students use to pass exams. I won't try to explain (I don't even understand!) this power to memorize. It has its temporary use in education, I'm sure, but it must never take the place of the main tool, which is the ability to focus the attention.
Memorization was used by Charlotte Mason not to assimilate facts, but to give children material to meditate or "chew" on, so her students memorized scripture and poetry.
And that is what we memorize;
Scripture and Poetry.
There are many reasons to memorize scripture. Here are two:
“I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you” (Psalm 119:11)
"And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up."
(Deuteronomy 6:6-7)
We memorize poetry, because it is lovely.
I like what Andrew Pudewa says:
"There is perhaps no greater tool than memorization to seal language patterns into a human brain, and there is perhaps nothing more effective than poetry to provide exactly what we want: reliably correct and sophisticated language patterns."
|
Posted by 
May. 11, 2009 - Untitled Comment
Candace
www.candacemercyisnew.blogspot.com