How has memory become such an important battleground in the fight between the technophiles and the traditionalists?
A little while ago I was re-introduced to a parent at school who has been the world memory champion several times. I remembered meeting him a couple of months before on the touchline at a rugby match.
He had clearly forgotten our earlier meeting.
I’ll say that again.
The world memory champion had forgotten meeting me. Imagine what that did to my ego. He could remember six packs of cards in order but my face? No! I thought we’d had quite a laugh! Oh well!
I remembered that incident because, like most teachers, we’re talking a lot about memory at the moment.
The English department are anxious because the new specification essentially requires the students to learn 16 poems for their exam. Previously, they’d been allowed to take the anthology into the exam room with them. Needless to say, that has required quite a shift in their practice.
And the other departments are also mindful that, in all of their subjects, there is a great deal more ‘content’, first to grapple with and then to learn.
In some ways, technology has served to polarize the debate about memorisation.
On the one hand is the argument that memory is less important in a world with Google.
I get that argument. A couple of years ago we went on holiday with friends whose son was cramming to get into his chosen secondary school and I spent a good deal of time helping him to learn all the capital cities of Europe. I couldn’t really see why. Apparently, that’s what he needed to demonstrate his academic ability.
Of course, he couldn’t point to Moldova on a map...but he does know that Chisinau is its capital.
Actually, I doubt he still knows that.
Like me just now, I suspect he’d have to Google it.
I didn’t really mind. It helped me to avoid all the rows as his parents hurtled towards their acrimonious divorce. I’m not sure the stress of all that testing wasn’t a contributory factor.
On the other hand, the more we learn about neural architecture, the more powerful is the argument that memory skills are an important factor in good cognitive function. I understand that memorising facts can provide the foundations on which higher-level thinking skills are based.
Like everyone, we’re feeling our way through this debate.
We are thinking about running short courses in memory skills for all our students.
And we’re going to trial several apps to see if they can come anywhere near the claims they make in helping students to learn.
The apps fall into two camps. Some are very task-oriented and they claim to work by taking the material to be learnt and then re-presenting it in different forms and testing you until it sticks. Some have audio, some are much more visual.
The other type of app focuses on the cognitive skills and might be classed as ‘brain-training’. They seek to develop skills that can be applied to any memory task.
If I’m honest, I’m a bit sceptical, if only because the apps make it seem too easy; too often we turn to an app when we want to take the effort out of something. A bit like those ‘perfect abs without exercise’ machines.
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