Rote Learning
Some people claim that rote memorizing without comprehension is useless, and that rote memorization is not a useful practice.
But is this true?
Let’s consider some facts: The original meaning of “rote,” which comes from Middle English, means “repetition.”
When you commit things to memory you do it by repeating them over and over again until the long-term memory invites them in. And even after that, you need to review the things you’ve memorized now and then to maintain your recall.
But there’s a more interesting term that was commonly used before rote learning was condemned to the shelves of archaic pedagogical practices.
The term is “learn by heart.”
The once common idiom derives from Ancient Greek thought. The Ancient Greeks, who greatly influenced our educational model, when an education was still to be had, believed that the intelligence and memory were housed in the heart, hence the idiom.
But what does it mean to learn something by heart?
It means we make it a part of ourselves. It’s no longer a thing outside of us; it’s now a thing within us.
“‘Learning by heart,’ which speaks to the soul, has been replaced by ‘rote-learning’ and ‘learning by rote,’ which are off-putting terms that have the effect of making memorizing into a matter of using the brain as a piece of machinery.”
There are still pockets in various countries students still learn entire books by heart, including grammar, logic, and rhetoric.
We aren’t talking about a few math facts or parts of speech; we are talking about entire books! Until a particular book is studied, until the contents live on a shelf in the student’s heart, a person is not considered an expert of his subject.
How’s that for raising the standards of education?!
Furthermore, children who learn by heart are known for the brilliance of their memories because the simple act of memorizing will develop your memory. Any above-average intelligent person you know has a strong memory.
It’s one of the qualities that separates the experts in their fields from the rest.
And they say rote learning is bad!
Your children need to develop their memories. You want your children to memorize as much as they can.
Take learning a foreign language as an example. One of the arguments against the practice of learning by heart is that you don’t learn a foreign language by memorizing it’s parts, you learn it by speaking the language.
While this is certainly true, the objection makes a greater argument for learning a language while living in the country where the language is spoken, rather than an argument against memorization.
Speaking a language does not make you literate in a language. It just makes you able to converse in the colloquial tongue. To have an intelligent understanding of any language you need to have a thorough understanding of its grammatical structure.
Even to speak in a colloquial tongue requires that you remember the words you’ve learned!
All Americans grow up speaking English, but the number of Americans who can read and write intelligently, persuasively, and eloquently has dwindled significantly.
Some researchers like Jo Boaler of Stanford University argue that math facts shouldn’t be memorized when children are young but the focus should be on conceptual learning.
Jo Boaler’s position teaches us only one thing: we should listen to researchers less and to our common sense more.
Is math not the most precise of subjects? And if you understand a particular math concept perfectly but make an error in the addition or multiplication part of the problem, is not your answer wrong?
How much greater, then, are your chances of finding the correct answer when you have your math facts at your fingertips. And what do children love to do most?
Memorize!
So why should they not learn the math facts when it will serve them well, and when they enjoy memory work.
If you study Latin using the traditional method, you will find yourself memorizing noun declensions and verb conjugations before you learn how to translate a sentence from English into Latin.
Yet, when it comes time to construct your first sentence, and every sentence afterward, how much easier it becomes when you’ve committed the declensions and the conjugations to memory.
When you ask a child to memorize a poem, you are asking the child to learn the poem by heart so the poem becomes a part of the child.
In memorizing the poem, whether he fully understands it or not, the language will emerge when the child–and later the adult–speaks or writes, and it will only make him that much better at it when he does.
As he grows older, he’ll slowly begin to grasp the meanings until one day the poem has not only been learned by heart, but the heart has understood the poem.
Committing worthwhile material to memory will develop your child’s memory. The more material your children commit to memory, the stronger his memory will become.
And don’t forget that a strong memory is a key component of a strong intellect!
Let me ask you a question: with Alzheimer’s and early onset dementia on the rise, does it not behoove us to do what we can to protect our memories? And don’t we keep our memories functional by using them?
Children love to memorize anything whether it makes sense to them or not. It’s what Dorothy Sayers labeled the “Poll-Parrot” stage of learning. They’re designed this way because it’s what they need.
Learning everything they can learn by heart is good for them. And it might even protect them against dementia when they’re older.
Why not take advantage of their natural inclination and let them memorize as many math facts and poems as they can?
““Piglet noticed that even though he had a Very Small Heart, it could hold a rather large amount of Gratitude.””
And there is plenty or room for math facts and poetry too!
When you join the Smart Homeschooler Academy online course for parents, Liz will share her 6-step framework, so you can raise children of higher intelligence, critical thinking, and of good character.
As a homeschooler, you will never have to worry about failing your children, because working with Liz, you will feel confident, calm, and motivated; as she guides you in the stops to training your children’s minds and nurturing their characters.
Don’t miss our free download, Ten Books Every Well-Educated Child Should Read.
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Elizabeth Y. Hanson is a homeschooling thought-leader and the founder of Smart Homeschooler.
As an Educator, Homeschool Emerita, Writer, and Love and Leadership Certified Parenting Coach, she has 21+ years of experience working in education.
Developing a comprehensive understanding of how to raise and educate a child, based on tradition and modern research, and she devotes her time to helping parents to get it right.
Elizabeth is available for one-on-one consultations as needed.
"I know Elizabeth Y. Hanson as a remarkably intelligent, highly sensitive woman with a moral nature and deep insight into differences between schooling and education. Elizabeth's mastery of current educational difficulties is a testimony to her comprehensive understanding of the competing worlds of schooling and education. She has a good heart and a good head. What more can I say?”
—John Taylor Gatto Distinguished educator, public speaker, and best-selling author of Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling
