I guess my reply would be, rote memorization is so dead, it’s hard to understand why it’s use would ever now be allotted two seconds’ disparagement. Save that in post after post and article after article, we do indeed read that “rote memorization won’t cut it anymore.”

On the other hand, yes, yes it will. Of my teachers and classes, the ones I am most grateful to are those who forced rote memorization. I am grateful that I know 2 2=4, and 6X8=48, sqrt(144)=12, and pi=3.14159. I’m extraordinarily thankful for the teachers who made me learn the entire Gettysburg address, and the Star Spangled Banner, and the Declaration of Independence as far as “all men are created equal, and are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these rights are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.”

Thank God for Ms. Sarah Jane Hartley, who stood their with her crutches and arm braces and, lifting one arm with the other to point, forced us into memorizing the name and location of every single country on earth. And for the music teachers who led us into learning “America the Beautiful”, and “Roll on Columbia”.

Would that some braver teacher had reached out and forced by rote:
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam’d,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say ‘To-morrow is Saint Crispian.’
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,
And say ‘These wounds I had on Crispian’s day.’”

I’d have been much less silly in my early years.

The poems, speeches, and writings learned by rote remain in mind, ready in a boardroom, factory floor, field of battle, on a bus with pen in hand, or God forbid, celled alone in a prisoner of war camp or cast away at sea.

My regret is hardly the time spent memorizing, rail against it though I might have. Rather, I detest the blocks of time that could have—should have—been spent memorizing.

Video games are very good at making people learn things mostly by rote. The web…not yet!

I used my ESE Inclusion students as an example because the typical viewpoint of these students are of low achievers. Fault not on them. However, my regular students in those classes enjoyed the same amounts of success. I don’t view the ‘gadgets’ as you call them, I, and I’m sure as most of Jeff’s readers describe them, as tools. Sure, they are fairly new, with new technologies and concepts coming out on a daily basis. That’s the beauty of technology. We didn’t start out using a knife, is there not proof that the earliest knives consisted of chiseled down stones and bones?

Please don’t confuse my goal in education as being to teach our students these gadgets. My goal, as you stated yours is as well, is to teach them ‘concepts’. Again, once I employed these gadgets as you call them. Learning increased. Participation increased as well, along the entire spectrum of students, race and ability levels. Our students these days learn differently than the generations before. Rote memorization of historical facts and dates is just not enough anymore.

Tom.

Well, the first thing is, that when I say “education”, I’m speak of the whole. No doubt that you were able to make use of some of the latest gadgets to reach a select group of kids. But, I’ll argue, you could have done the same at any point in time with the resources you could find around you. Because, I’l wager, you are an above average teacher, committed to creatively reaching the kids. A couple of nun friends who work with severely handicapped kids reach them another way. So, if computers, cameras, and iPods help you accomplish the mission, great!

I’m saying, lets keep our eye on what that mission is. For example, learning to write well. A blog is still just a blank piece of paper. If the time overhead of using the blog does not take away from content instruction, fine. use it. As long as someone is still there with Strunk and White in hand, showing the kids how to craft better sentences.

And actually, students who read tend to become better writers. So, again, there’s that content thing.

>”The key behind both of these examples is that it was FUN for the students to partake in the activity. Isn’t that what we are in the business to do?”

Well, no. Teachers are in the business of filling kids heads with Shakespeare and Franklin and Michelangelo and Bach and Newton and Einstein and Locke and Adam Smith and Tesla and Mendel and Socrates and David and Ghandi and Kennedy and Muir and….you know! What we’re seeing is now a fifty year downward trend at the teachng of those things, so much so that the teachers now don’t even know many of them exist.

There are schools which teach all of these things–and many more–with a vengeance. Whats cool is, the more exposure to the classic stuff the kids get, the more excited they and their teachers become. We heard from a principle in the southwest who just could not believe the energy that was infused into his classrooms when they switched to a high-content curriculum.

Beyond the Basics: Achieving a Liberal Education for All Children is a good first resource for assessing content delivery verses other uses of classroom time. Check at EdExcellennce.net for the conference and the report.

Are you kidding me? The use of digital storytelling in my inclusion classroom allowed my ESE students to see success, for many, it was the first in a long while. The use of the podcast allowed my same ESE students a chance at being able to express themselves on topics related to the curriculum without saying, ok let’s write a 5 paragraph essay and move along. The key behind both of these examples is that it was FUN for the students to partake in the activity. Isn’t that what we are in the business to do? To facilitate the learning process of our charges?

“Kids blogging is fad; learning content is important.”

Again sir, it might be a fad. But if it is a way for students to write, without the stigma of sitting down and ‘writing an essay’ then why not use it as a tool to, well, write? Is it not true that students who write, and write often, become better writers? Why not offer our students a way to do that?

You sir can keep your wikipedia and a ‘few’ math forums. I will continue using these ‘tools’ that have worked for me, and I’m sure for countless others. That’s the beauty of the world we live in isn’t it? Choices?

Tom.

First, I realize that mine was a long, somewhat dejected, and perhaps over-reaching response to the question “Why are we doing this?”

I guess the newbie quip is one of the things that escaped you: ’twas intended to be an affectionate reminder that 3-4 years of working at something is too early to get dejected and contemplate quitting. The road ahead is too long, and many of us have put in way more effort, still waiting on the seeds to germinate. Technology is the exciting things to come, where computers help us learn more, faster. With rare exceptions, Wikipedia and a few math help forums are really the only things dramatically changing education so far. In fact, barring a sharp change in the current direction of things, the main way a PC will affect education in the next few years is as a funnel to an iPod. If things go well.

Now to the blathering-about-skills remark, which is what really sticks in your crow, as it is true…and your profession (if you’re a teacher) doesn’t want to admit it:

Europeans and others do OK with their history and civics; American learning in those topics was poor, and to this day, continues to decline. That is a problem. It happens because we refuse to teach facts and content.

I am not “a history buff”. I am a victim of 21 years of inadequate teaching, who just seeks to be minimally culturally literate . The failure of those teachers to teach content is why I put so much time into the project, and why I visit blogs like this to remind what is important, and what is fad. Kids blogging is fad; learning content is important.

And, because in our urban schools, fifty percent of young black Americans do not graduate. Fifty percent!

The road to reclaiming those kids is long and hard.

Glad to hear someone else is trying an individualized plan for teachers using tech. I’ve found principal buy-in is the critical piece.

Good luck and keep us posted.

Doug