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Socrates was grumbling that writing things down was impairing our ability to learn things by heart. As far as I am concerned, the more rote memorization that t

Socrates was grumbling that writing things down was impairing our ability to learn things by heart. As far as I am concerned, the more rote memorization that things machines can take off my brain's to-do list, the more time+space I can devote to higher-level thinking.

integraleq 16y ago
I would agree with you, but I think there is something to be said for the kind of mental dexterity it takes to do higher-level thinking while having a detailed view of what you are trying to accomplish. I would not want to give up all lower level cognition though. To each his own I guess.
- okaramian 16y ago
  I think understanding the concept of the lower level stuff without having to have rote memorization is important. As an example, high school kids learn calculus via rote memorization (at least this is how we learned it). We learned what the derivative of x^2 was, etc. but not necessarily what the derivative is. The majority of testing doesn't really focus on the concept, and it should. As I got into college I understood the concepts behind mathematical thought and everything started making sense. So I guess I'm in the "less rote memorization" camp.
Chris_Newton 16y ago
> As far as I am concerned, the more rote memorization that things machines can take off my brain's to-do list, the more time+space I can devote to higher-level thinking. I agree up to a point, but someone who understands lots of grammar but has no vocabulary is just as poor a communicator as someone with lots of vocabulary but no grammar, or perhaps even worse. I am concerned that modern trends in education could create a generation with lots of ideas but no practical experience or background information to put anything in context. They can't look everything up every time, and they are going to need a certain level of knowledge to appreciate the significance of the ideas they are learning.
- ams6110 16y ago
  This is why I don't use editors with IntelliSense-like capabilities, or if they have it I disable it.

integraleq 16y ago

I would agree with you, but I think there is something to be said for the kind of mental dexterity it takes to do higher-level thinking while having a detailed view of what you are trying to accomplish. I would not want to give up all lower level cognition though. To each his own I guess.

okaramian 16y ago
I think understanding the concept of the lower level stuff without having to have rote memorization is important. As an example, high school kids learn calculus via rote memorization (at least this is how we learned it). We learned what the derivative of x^2 was, etc. but not necessarily what the derivative is. The majority of testing doesn't really focus on the concept, and it should. As I got into college I understood the concepts behind mathematical thought and everything started making sense. So I guess I'm in the "less rote memorization" camp.

Chris_Newton 16y ago

> As far as I am concerned, the more rote memorization that things machines can take off my brain's to-do list, the more time+space I can devote to higher-level thinking. I agree up to a point, but someone who understands lots of grammar but has no vocabulary is just as poor a communicator as someone with lots of vocabulary but no grammar, or perhaps even worse. I am concerned that modern trends in education could create a generation with lots of ideas but no practical experience or background information to put anything in context. They can't look everything up every time, and they are going to need a certain level of knowledge to appreciate the significance of the ideas they are learning.

ams6110 16y ago
This is why I don't use editors with IntelliSense-like capabilities, or if they have it I disable it.