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I come from a very similar background as the writer. As a young man, I showed high potential for languages. So when I went to college, I loaded up on language

I come from a very similar background as the writer. As a young man, I showed high potential for languages. So when I went to college, I loaded up on languages, graduating with 6 different languages at at least the 200-level and fluency in 3 of those languages. Unlike the writer, I chose neither military nor government work upon graduation, but instead worked as an ATA-certified translator for 10+ years, primarily translating pharmaceutical documentation and medical studies. I've since moved into professional software development and am now rusty in the spoken languages I used to be fluent in. I work with a number of different programming languages, primarily doing web development since that's where the money is in remote work (although I also have a strong interest in embedded programming). In between, I also finished graduate school in public health (don't ask!), taking multiple upper-level biostats and epidemiology courses. Anyway, people were always interested in how I learned so many languages. As it turned out, I used similar techniques as what the writer describes to not only learn languages, but also learn graduate-level quantitative coursework, and now programming languages, algorithms, and data structures (an ongoing task!). People are taking exception to her description of the technique as "rote learning". Perhaps a better emphasis would be on repetition, drilling, and fluency. But for me at least, this did entail things like flash cards -- Quizlet is a godsend -- and repeated, focused practice of short problems. I have found that the technique doesn't seem to work as well for complex algorithms as it did for math and languages. Maybe because it's difficult to break down some algorithms into small parts, perhaps because I just haven't figured out how to do so yet, or maybe I'm just getting older. But I am in total agreement with the writer that modern education does a grave disservice to young learners by discarding rote learning and repetition.

stdbrouw 12y ago
> But I am in total agreement with the writer that modern education does a grave disservice to young learners by discarding rote learning and repetition. I've come to appreciate the importance of rote learning over the past couple of years... but despite its simplicity, I would call it a very advanced technique. You don't need rote learning to get to understand something. You don't even need rote learning to become very good at something. You only ever need it to be able to think faster about certain advanced topics or if you'd like to become fully fluent in a language. These are not things a high school student should necessarily spend much time on. Especially considering that rote learning, if not self-motivated, can be incredibly demotivating and have the opposite effect of what was intended.
- jdbernard 12y ago
  I disagree. We are expecting students to learn more than ever before. Math is a great example. Their ability to handle even a simple concept like multiplication requires fluency in addition. The ability to learn algebra requires fluency in arithmetic. The ability to learn calculus requires fluency in algebra. Tons of kids pass one grade but emerge unprepared for the next. The author hits the nail on the head: they understand the material at the time, but never develop fluency. Then next year when they try to build on that foundation it has evaporated. Rote learning should begin in elementary. I am thankful that I was required to learn my multiplication tables. Yes, we need to tailor our teaching to the attention span and abilities of our students, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't be using this powerful tool of fluency through rote learning.
  - Retric 12y ago
    It really depends on the goal. From a mathematician's perspective Engineering is still part of the kiddie pool of math. The kind of things some people did in high school mostly though route memorization. However, for ~98% of the population it's by far the most useful parts of math. Then again you can also say the same thing about just Arithmetic, basic Algebra, Logic and Statistics. So, it's really a question of what your goals are. There is actually a lot of Math that's been dropped from K-12 education. EX: Understanding logarithms is really fundamental for using a slide rule or understanding floating point arithmetic, but it's not really that useful for most people.
- anigbrowl 12y ago
  Even though I chafed a bit at the delays it imposed and kept asking the teacher about other more advanced topics, I do not regret a single minute of the time spent chanting 12-times tables in my first couple of school years. Same deal for written exercises and homework - I don't think I'd be so good at mental math, estimating, and 'back of the envelope' calculations done in pencil if it weren't for all that practice as a child.
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
dognotdog 12y ago
I believe what is described is repetition, but not rote learning. That, to me, means memorizing facts without connecting the dots. Rote memorization is learning for an exam by memorizing the previous years' problems, or learning history by memorizing dates and events. If I focus on knowing the previous years problems by heart, I may accidentally make the connections to be able to solve more varied problems, but thats rather inefficient. Similarly, knowing historical dates doesn't imply an understanding of why and how things happened. Learning different conjugations of verbs by using them in sentences isn't rote learning, either. It's rather the opposite, trying to connect the new verb into the existing knowledge of the language. Rote learning alone is useless for most students. Repetition is certainly important in retaining information, no doubt about it, but as with the math examples, you need to apply basic arithmetic in the context of solving equations, for example, to really get a "feel" for it, a sort of automatism where you not only know how to do 1+1, but also WHEN to use this knowledge. As far as complex algorithms and such go, I do believe they can be broken down into pieces, but you really do have to know the pieces and their relations and implications innately, and with complex algorithms, it's really hard to know all the pieces of the puzzle, and sometimes even finding out what is missing is difficult. You can drill something ad infinitum without gaining anything if you're missing something. I believe this to be the secret skill that the article omits. In order to learn effectively, you have to recognize where your knowledge is lacking, find out what it is you should know, and drill those parts. A teacher should help students find these gaps and help fill them. The rest is just a little bit of willpower and discipline.
Ixiaus 12y ago
Spaced repetition algorithms and programs are a godsend. Org-drill and diligence has increased my retained knowledge of vocabulary, grammar, mathematics, and logic. Other people probably use Mnemosyne which is great but having space repetition in Emacs? Org-mode? Capturing notes to-read or facts from the web that I want to remember and automatically putting it into my drill sequence? Definitely not rote - deliberate, yes.

stdbrouw 12y ago

> But I am in total agreement with the writer that modern education does a grave disservice to young learners by discarding rote learning and repetition. I've come to appreciate the importance of rote learning over the past couple of years... but despite its simplicity, I would call it a very advanced technique. You don't need rote learning to get to understand something. You don't even need rote learning to become very good at something. You only ever need it to be able to think faster about certain advanced topics or if you'd like to become fully fluent in a language. These are not things a high school student should necessarily spend much time on. Especially considering that rote learning, if not self-motivated, can be incredibly demotivating and have the opposite effect of what was intended.

jdbernard 12y ago
I disagree. We are expecting students to learn more than ever before. Math is a great example. Their ability to handle even a simple concept like multiplication requires fluency in addition. The ability to learn algebra requires fluency in arithmetic. The ability to learn calculus requires fluency in algebra. Tons of kids pass one grade but emerge unprepared for the next. The author hits the nail on the head: they understand the material at the time, but never develop fluency. Then next year when they try to build on that foundation it has evaporated. Rote learning should begin in elementary. I am thankful that I was required to learn my multiplication tables. Yes, we need to tailor our teaching to the attention span and abilities of our students, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't be using this powerful tool of fluency through rote learning.
- Retric 12y ago
  It really depends on the goal. From a mathematician's perspective Engineering is still part of the kiddie pool of math. The kind of things some people did in high school mostly though route memorization. However, for ~98% of the population it's by far the most useful parts of math. Then again you can also say the same thing about just Arithmetic, basic Algebra, Logic and Statistics. So, it's really a question of what your goals are. There is actually a lot of Math that's been dropped from K-12 education. EX: Understanding logarithms is really fundamental for using a slide rule or understanding floating point arithmetic, but it's not really that useful for most people.
anigbrowl 12y ago
Even though I chafed a bit at the delays it imposed and kept asking the teacher about other more advanced topics, I do not regret a single minute of the time spent chanting 12-times tables in my first couple of school years. Same deal for written exercises and homework - I don't think I'd be so good at mental math, estimating, and 'back of the envelope' calculations done in pencil if it weren't for all that practice as a child.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]

dognotdog 12y ago

I believe what is described is repetition, but not rote learning. That, to me, means memorizing facts without connecting the dots. Rote memorization is learning for an exam by memorizing the previous years' problems, or learning history by memorizing dates and events. If I focus on knowing the previous years problems by heart, I may accidentally make the connections to be able to solve more varied problems, but thats rather inefficient. Similarly, knowing historical dates doesn't imply an understanding of why and how things happened. Learning different conjugations of verbs by using them in sentences isn't rote learning, either. It's rather the opposite, trying to connect the new verb into the existing knowledge of the language. Rote learning alone is useless for most students. Repetition is certainly important in retaining information, no doubt about it, but as with the math examples, you need to apply basic arithmetic in the context of solving equations, for example, to really get a "feel" for it, a sort of automatism where you not only know how to do 1+1, but also WHEN to use this knowledge. As far as complex algorithms and such go, I do believe they can be broken down into pieces, but you really do have to know the pieces and their relations and implications innately, and with complex algorithms, it's really hard to know all the pieces of the puzzle, and sometimes even finding out what is missing is difficult. You can drill something ad infinitum without gaining anything if you're missing something. I believe this to be the secret skill that the article omits. In order to learn effectively, you have to recognize where your knowledge is lacking, find out what it is you should know, and drill those parts. A teacher should help students find these gaps and help fill them. The rest is just a little bit of willpower and discipline.

Ixiaus 12y ago

Spaced repetition algorithms and programs are a godsend. Org-drill and diligence has increased my retained knowledge of vocabulary, grammar, mathematics, and logic. Other people probably use Mnemosyne which is great but having space repetition in Emacs? Org-mode? Capturing notes to-read or facts from the web that I want to remember and automatically putting it into my drill sequence? Definitely not rote - deliberate, yes.