Rote Memorization vs. Critical Thinking

What is the capital of New York? What European country held Angola as its former colony? World's largest waterfall? Longest unfortified international border? Population of Tokyo? When polled, most American senior high school students would probably respond with a blank stare. In fact, most American adults may answer one of these, at best, where as the average South African student might tap into a vast filing cabinet of thought and extract the precise answer. Is it because Americans are stupid, or not keeping up with world standards of education? Are our school systems a disgrace? Or have we simply discovered a different method of learning?

When I first got to South Africa a few years ago, I was embarrassed at how much knowledge the learners had, compared with Americans of the same age. It seemed everything from the multiplication tables to their presidential lineup was ingrained in their heads, able to be conjured at will. Two and a half years later, however, I was singing a different tune.

I grew up in, and worked in the American educational system and saw many changes even within my grade-school lifespan. One major change is the shift from rote memorization to applicable knowledge. We are actually taught "how" to think. There were so many times in South Africa, working at a primary (elementary) school that I would get frustrated with the students' inability to answer, what I thought, were simple questions. We would read a short story, and I would ask the students, "What do you think happens next?" The class would begin to flip through their books, anxiously, until one student had the nerve to put his hand up and say, "But teacher, the book doesn't say what we think happens next."

In another class, the kids were reciting addition. "Three plus four equals seven. Three plus five equals eight. Three plus six equals nine." When I subbed for that class, I asked them "If I have three apples, and my friend gives me four, how many do I have?" The kids stared at me in horror. So I changed the question. "What is three plus four?" To which the whole class emphatically replied, "Three plus four equals seven!" So I tried again. "Ok, class. Excellent. You know addition. So, if I have three apples, and my friend gives me four, how many do I have." Blank stares.

To me, the connection was obvious. Maybe every American student can't rattle off addition tables, but they would likely understand that my word problem required them to add three and four, whether or not they knew that answer off the top of their heads. When I was younger, I can remember doing a lot more rote memorization, whereas when I got into junior high school, the focus shifted dramatically. We no longer "wasted" space in our brains memorizing facts, but rather we learned when we needed which facts and, perhaps more importantly, we learned where to access those facts.

What is the capital of New York? What European country held Angola as its former colony? World's largest waterfall? Longest unfortified international border? Population of Tokyo?

I would venture to guess that by now, most curious Americans probably already googled these answers and can say that Albany is the capital of New York, Portugal held Angola and so forth. American schools today focus more on when and why these facts would be important and applicable, rather than making sure that students know these off the top of their heads.

The question is, "which system is better?" Most schools move from rote memorization to a system of critical thinking, but that doesn't necessarily mean it has worked better. I think, like in most situations, finding a balance of the two will probably be the most productive Memorizing endless facts with no ability to apply them won't get you far. However, if you can apply anything, but have memorized nothing, you won't be much of a conversationalist. We tend to google things more than ever before, but it is also annoying to spend more of a conversation googling than actually conversing.

This was evident the other night, when my family sat down to play a game of Scategories. Back in my childhood, we would simply play the game. Now, the game took hours because we had to double check every single answer on the internet to confirm or deny the answers. What would we have done without the internet? The world simply would have stopped turning.

As a teacher, I think it is important to insure that your students have a basic memorized fact base to draw from in daily conversations. Students should also be encouraged to memorize certain facts for certain occasions, whether it is a trip overseas or an outing to an opera, in order to ensure that they can maximize the experience gained.

It is also, as a teacher, important to ensure that students can take the facts, work with them, interact with them and apply them. In addition, people must know where to quickly access facts. We can gather them from a calculator, the internet, books, tv and many more. A fact that cannot be applied is useless, and a situation that requires facts no one can find is just as empty.