Google will give me the dates in 5 seconds, and then I can reason about it. I doubt you know (remember) the date of everything that happened in history. I do n

Google will give me the dates in 5 seconds, and then I can reason about it. I doubt you know (remember) the date of everything that happened in history. I do not doubt that you can reason about, understand, and learn from history. No one is arguing for no memorization, ever. We are arguing against rote memorization and for learning how to think and reason. It is not a dichotomy, it's a continuum. Of course any example that someone comes up with by way of illustrating their position is going to have a quibble or counter. But that is kind of missing the forest for the trees, IMO. To expand that line of thought. We have new tools now, like google, and an ever increasing body of facts. It was perhaps reasonable to 'memorize the world' in 1912; there is no chance of it today. A few dozen European, white dead authors to read, handfuls of major population centers, tons of jobs related to shipping corn and such (thank you ships and trains!), and so memorizing the almanac and learning percentages made a lot of sense (perhaps, I'll stipulate it). Now, to have an effective mind you have to be able to find and assimilate data from several sources quickly, and find the meaning behind the facts. I don't know the answer to your Monroe Doctrine question, but I have no doubt that I could get you the answer quickly, and write an "A", graduate level paper in a few days should I choose. That's what I need to succeed in this world, not know the stupid date of some treaty.