Memory Skills Made Easy

As a teacher and parent I get confused when I hear that memorizing is a thing of the past. I know when I’m in the classroom that kids can’t remember their Spanish verbs or conjugations easily. I also know as a parent that my son doesn’t remember history facts very easily.

So what am I supposed to do? Tell each to suck it up and get the information in there without a conscious effort?

I’m all in favor of learning in context and understanding information as it applies to real life. I don’t like the idea of memorizing as a rote activity. There needs to be an anchor involved somewhere. Most times this anchor comes from the context and the other elements of the lesson. (more…)

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You can talk all you want about understanding and comprehension. I’ll talk about memory skills and being able to retain and later recall information. In my mind, they are both indispensable parts of the same equation.

Here’s what I mean. Memory skills in and of themselves are not the solution to poor grades. It’s important to understand a concept or fact when it is presented. The problem lies in being able to recall that same fact or concept at a later date. Maybe the next day, maybe in three weeks for a test. Can your child do that?

Or better yet, memory skills aside, can your child do that with all the facts, figures and concepts that are presented in that three week period? Maybe yes, maybe no. 

The problem is not whether your child can understand the concept, fact or figure once it’s presented or remembered. It’s more a question of, can they recall it so that they can show they understand it?

So you see, understanding and remembering go hand in hand. Memory skills are 1/2 of the formula for high grades and self esteem. Nevertheless, they are part of the package and people that say that memorizing is a waste of time don’t know what they’re talking about.

I’d go so far as to say that those same people never learned memory skills and therefore suffered unnecessarily when they had to retain information. They have terrible memories (forgive the pun) of sitting down and trying to remember what they needed. They became frustrated and angry and eventually called the whole process a waste of time.

Am I right? Who knows. All I want to say is that memory skills should not be tossed to the side because they are “a thing of the past.” A fading educational requirement that has no place in learning today.

Memory skills are here to stay and the sooner you, or your child, learns them the better.

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