Do School Children Memorize Today? S/O Sorta
The article about the geneticist and intellegence made me think about something.
When I was in school, we memorized stuff regularly and often. I would venture to guess that by high school, the memory averaged out to 2 items a month that had to be memorized and presented to the teacher either orally or written on a test.
Do schools cultivate the skill of memorization today?
Do you think the skill of memorizing and recalling helps to exercise the brain and improve information retention?
My daughter is in 2nd grade and they haven't started teaching cursive...I don't even know if they will. She started teaching herself how to write her name and she's pretty good at it!
Quoting eema.gray::-( If my kids wind up in schools that don't teach cursive, I'll teach them myself.
Husband and I have been having lots of conversations about after school/home work strategies when the kids don't bring home homework or during school breaks. Memorization of facts and figures is at the top of my list, along with handwriting work, and other stuff I am sure I will think of in the meantime.
Quoting Woodbabe:My kids are all out of school but I don't recall them doing it. The last time I can remember having to do that was in 6th grade speech class...I Can Not Go To School Today...I had to memorize it and say it to the class!
They don't even teach cursive handwriting at most schools anymore because it's too hard.....
When I was in school they had us go to the library once a week for memory stimulation exercises. They would flash on a screen a set of letters or numbers and we would have to write down what we remembered. This would be done starting with fewer and graduating to larger strings of figures, and slower and quicker times to watch the line.
I think it helped my memory tremendously, and I don't think any of my kids did this.
Too bad, really.
I enjoyed learning about Mae Jemison with my son. One of the quotes he is presenting by her is "never be limited by others limited imagination." I love that quote.
BTW, my children attend public schools.
Quoting eema.gray:I love Langston Hughes. :-) Such a bright, eloquent voice
Quoting rfurlongg:
My kids are only in 1st and 2nd but so far both have had to memorize several poems and present them orally. My youngest is presenting several Langston Hughes poems today and my oldest will be quoting several phrases from Mae Jemison on Thursday.
We did memorization work when I homeschooled the kids. Based on the research I did, it is an important tool in the younger years. That way, they have lots of facts crammed into their little heads when they get to the age of being able to synthesize and understand the information.
Simply memorizing a poem is useless and trite if you can not comprehend it. Poems and literature were written to convey the thoughts of their authors and be analysed. Criticalthinking skills come into play here. I don't believe schools are teaching anything beyond memorization.
Hope your children do well in their presentations.
Quoting rfurlongg:
My kids are only in 1st and 2nd but so far both have had to memorize several poems and present them orally. My youngest is presenting several Langston Hughes poems today and my oldest will be quoting several phrases from Mae Jemison on Thursday.
Not necessarily true; grammar school aged kids rarely "understand" the poem they are memorizing, but the skill is still there. Comprehension and memorization are mutually exclusive.
Quoting MeAndTommyLee:
Simply memorizing a poem is useless and trite if you can not comprehend it. Poems and literature were written to convey the thoughts of their authors and be analysed. Criticalthinking skills come into play here. I don't believe schools are teaching anything beyond memorization.
Hope your children do well in their presentations.
Quoting rfurlongg:
My kids are only in 1st and 2nd but so far both have had to memorize several poems and present them orally. My youngest is presenting several Langston Hughes poems today and my oldest will be quoting several phrases from Mae Jemison on Thursday.
I get your point, but I do believe that simply being able to read anything does not equate comprehension. You can say my kid reads at the fifth grade level because he did really well at memorizing words. But did he understand it? Again, I get your point though.
Quoting Radarma:
Not necessarily true; grammar school aged kids rarely "understand" the poem they are memorizing, but the skill is still there. Comprehension and memorization are mutually exclusive.
Quoting MeAndTommyLee:
Simply memorizing a poem is useless and trite if you can not comprehend it. Poems and literature were written to convey the thoughts of their authors and be analysed. Criticalthinking skills come into play here. I don't believe schools are teaching anything beyond memorization.
Hope your children do well in their presentations.
Quoting rfurlongg:
My kids are only in 1st and 2nd but so far both have had to memorize several poems and present them orally. My youngest is presenting several Langston Hughes poems today and my oldest will be quoting several phrases from Mae Jemison on Thursday.
I admit I don't require my kids to memorize as much as I should. We did more when they were younger, but they seem to have enough memorizing of dates and definitions now that the only thing I have them memorize is scripture. They are jr high/ high school ages now.
My son's music classes require memorization of scales, marching band music, etc. His Spanish class requires memorization of new vocabulary every few days. He is in public school.
Do you find this to be a waste of money?
- eema.gray
on Feb. 19, 2013 at 10:07 AM