Hi,
Well, a couple of weeks ago, Rahul, Aparna & me had a free-wheeling talkathon. For some reason, the issue of memorization cropped up and Rahul remarked,
" Why is it essential to memorize?”
I wasn't surprised. My office-colleague Prasad had passed a similar comment earlier. He had quoted Albert Einstein as saying, "Why bother to remember facts which can be looked up in a reference book?"And I had shot back, “Percy, buddy... Einstein could say something like that because he was THE Einstein. What are mere mortals like you and me saving our precious memory for?? To store juicy gossip about film-stars and trivia about our sports-persons?"
I, for one, am all for memorization. It is a part of learning process and highly essential for better thinking and decision-making.
Rahul's contention was that most of our decisions are logic-based. True! But to arrive at a conclusion you have to make use of some information, which isn't possible unless you have a knowledge- base ready at hand... i.e. in your brain.
And reference-books may not be accessible every place, every time.
As a kid, I was made to recite tables from 1 to 30 every evening. I hated it then, but today they have indeed made life much simpler. If an answer to something like 19 x 7 is needed, while my colleagues scramble for their calculators or go Start->Programs->Accessories-> Calculator, I have already noted down 133 and moved on.
I am NOT saying that you must memorize each and every piece of information you may come across. But surely it's not too much to expect to learn by-heart a few basic things which you might need in your personal or professional life. A physicist would be expected to know values of fundamental constants, A chemist would be expected to know valencies of major elements.
To say that you can look up these things in a reference book means either you are highly prodigious or.... in most of the cases, plain lazy.
Also memorization is not hard work. If you love the subject, it's quite easy to recall what you have learnt.
A few days back, I had gone to one of our relative’s in Pune. As we sat there talking, the girl in the house was solving some integration problems and was stuck up on a particular derivative. Having learnt derivatives almost by rote in my HSSC, I couldn’t help pointing out the answer to her and was rewarded with an appreciative smile.
…. So you see, there are some un-expected benefits too!
Yours,
- G.
2 comments:
Well, G, though sometimes it is rewarding.....but some times..only.
I mean, I do agree with memorising tables for faster calculations in basic mathematics......or memorisation of a few versas or stotras during childhood which sharpens our brain.
However, I am against the memorisation done for passing exams.....just before exams....with no deep study. Nowadays, in most of the school and college exams....this memorisation is done and due to which people may get good marks but it kills the natural way of studying a particular subject.
G,
Between our childhood and present day -a very important development has happened. No, not computers, neither the internet - it is the telecom revolution.
As a result, any kind of information is now available at fingertips IF you know where to get it. This demands that we change our habits and beliefs to adapt to the new scenario.
Unlike our childhood when children were expected to 'mug' up information - today's children will need to 'mug' metadata - in layman's terms- information about information.
They will need to remember on their fingertips about 'where to look for' for a particular answer. That my dear friend will be the key to success in coming years.
However, some basic stuff like mathematical tables will need to be mugged - more as a exercise to the mind, as a conditioning so that it is capable of remembering much more complex forms of data .. oops metadata ... in future ....
Yours,
N
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