Re:Solzhenitsyn’s Rosary (2016)
by poweronselftest on Monday March 08, 2021 @11:07PM
(#26395319)
Memorization is largely vilified in American schooling, and for good reason. But I think if not abused, it is an excellent form of (self-) learning not at all devoid of near meditative qualities. There something special about committing things to memory, especially verses.
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I had experience with both American schooling and European one where memorization was a big part of the learning. I was struggling to memorize things. The American way worked perfectly for me. I think that schools should not encourage memorization.
A learning process where you remember all the facts and recite them exactly, you get a good grade is bad. That doesn't mean you actually understand and can apply your knowledge. There was this article on HN a couple of days ago about the medical paper where the author had reinvented the integral. That's the result of too much memorization.
You have a very interesting insight here -- now that I think about it, I see it. But I'm not sure I agree that it is for a good reason.
Intuitive understanding of math is better than rote memorization. But that does not mean that rote memorization is bad, only lesser. I'm also not convinced that many people can grasp something intuitively, bypassing rote memorization.
It’s also been noted that basically all great mathematicians are excellent at basic maths (memorized timetables) and can remember many numbers and can calculate in head quickly —— even though technically shouldn’t be necessary for proofs