New educational standards in Georgia and Arkansas - hope you’re paying attention, FCPS

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Imagine, being required to memorize a recite passages from famous works of literature! Such a novel idea. /s Is this happening in FCPS?

New ed­u­ca­tional stan­dards in Geor­gia and Ar­kansas in­clude mod­est-sound­ing re­quire­ments that are in fact rev­o­lu­tion­ary.

In Geor­gia stu­dents will be re­quired to build “back­ground knowl­edge” by recit­ing all or part of sig­nif­i­cant po­ems and speeches. The Ar­kansas plan calls for stu­dents to re­cite a pas­sage from a well-known poem, play or speech. That’s it: an old-fash­ioned de­mand that stu­dents mem­o­rize the Get­tys­burg Ad­dress or Ham­let’s “To be or not to be” or Gwen­dolyn Brooks’s “We Real Cool” and re­cite it to an au­di­ence.

Most par­ents would prob­a­bly call this a wor­thy ex­er­cise, fos­ter­ing the courage to speak in pub­lic and fir­ing the ado­les­cent imag­i­na­tion. Who could ob­ject to lodg­ing mem­o­rable words in teenage heads oth­er­wise packed with Tik­Tok videos?

Eng­lish teach­ers, that’s who. Mod­ern ed­u­ca­tors view mem­o­riza-tion as empty rep­e­ti­tion, me­chan­i-cal and pre­scrip­tive rather than cre­ative or thought­ful. Recit­ing texts from mem­ory, they say, merely drops in­for­ma­tion into stu­dents’ minds. It’s rote learn­ing in­stead of crit­i­cal analy­sis.

That’s wrong. Recita­tion al­lows stu­dents to ex­pe­ri­ence a text as a liv­ing thing, ready to be taken up by a new gen­er­a­tion. Com­mit­ting a poem or speech to mem­ory means step­ping into the au­thor’s shoes and pon­der­ing what he meant. De­cid­ing which words to stress when recit­ing means think­ing about what those words mean. This is why pub­lic speak­ing was once a re­quire­ment at many col­leges and uni­ver­si­ties.

In our age of so­cial me­dia and ar­ti­fi­cial in­tel­li­gence, the prac­tice of recita­tion has never been more needed. Mem­o­riz­ing clas­sic words re­minds us that they are alive.

Ar­kansas and Geor­gia have some­thing even stronger than ped­a­gog­i­cal the­ory to jus­tify the new—or, rather, old—stan­dards. Watch the faces of par­ents as they lis­ten to their chil­dren urg­ing us all to­ward what Mar­tin Luther King Jr. called “a dream deeply rooted in the Amer­i­can dream,” or say­ing with Robert Frost, “I have been one ac­quainted with the night,” or with Shake­speare, “To­mor­row and to­mor­row and to­mor­row . . .”

When young re­citers re­turn to their seats, they know they have made age­less words their own. What par­ents and stu­dents feel at that mo­ment tran­scends a good grade. For a few min­utes, striv­ing teens be­come King, Frost or Shake­speare.

“Every man is an or­a­tor,” Ralph Waldo Emer­son wrote. “The elo­quence of one stim­u­lates all the rest . . . to a de­gree that makes them good re­ceivers and con­duc­tors.” Recit­ing clas­sic lines brings past elo­quence into the present, turn­ing us into re­ceivers and con­duc­tors. When we weigh the words of in­flu­en­tial men and women and re­al­ize they are still use­ful, we all ben­e­fit. Geor­gia and Ar­kansas un­der­stand this. Let’s hope many more states fol­low their lead.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/kids-and-the-power-of-the-spoken-word-georgia-arkansas-memory-classics-c55366e4

This is the dumbest thing I've ever read. I have a PhD in literature and can't imagine any reason at all why one would need to memorize the words of any particular piece of literature. What a waste of time. Memorizing words of some random poem but not having any idea why that poem is significant sounds like just the kind of thing a person who doesn't really understand literature would think was an important thing to do.

+1

+2 The time required to memorize and then recite would be better spent contextualizing the work or reading other works.

If it's either/or, I'll take contextualizing. But FCPS has chosen neither/nor. Which seems to be many parents' preference.

THIS ^^. Which some of these parents seem perfectly fine with. Personally, I'd take contextualizing AND memorizing, which is what I was taught to do long ago in my excellent public school.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn’t want my kids wasting time memorizing something like the Gettysburg address. Very pointless. In addition, some kids have issues with memorization. And can you imagine the teacher and students having to listen to 28 kids recite the Gettysburg address?!

Yes--what is the point of learning the words of one of our greatest Presidents? What is the point of learning how and where he wrote it? What is the point of knowing why he wrote it? What is the point of learning the history of what happened at Gettysburg?

Sadly I don’t think this is sarcasm.

The battle at Gettysburg was the turning point in the Civil War. Had Lee been victorious he would have had a stranglehold on the north while Sherman would have had a similar hold on the South. A standoff. The US would have split in two.

That is why learning about the battle and what it led to is important.

Aren't you satisfied with yourself? One can learn the bolded w/o memorizing the Gettysburg address. But you already know that.

Of course, you can learn about the battle without memorizing the Gettysburg Address. But, memorizing the Gettysburg Address brings a whole different layer of understanding to it.
No. You don't have to memorize the Gettysburg Address, but you are missing out if you have never done this.

Have you memorized it? The declaration of Independence is one of the most important documents in US history- I'm assuming that you have memorized at least the preamble. FDR's December 8 address to Congress is at least as important as the Gettysburg address, have you memorized it? Ike's letter in the event D-Day failed demonstrates the enormity of the event- have you memorized it? Have you memorized JFK's speech at the Berlin Wall? Reagan's? There are probably 100 other speeches and documents as important as what I've listed, do you think students should just spend their days memorizing them?

DP. Are you this pedantic in real life? No one has suggested memorizing ALL important speeches, poems, etc. Nice strawman. But for a kid to be able to memorize - and critically understand - one or two classic works is empowering. Sorry you don't see it that way, but not particularly surprised.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids can do this in theater or speech class. Not sure it makes sense to prioritize this in English class when writing takes so much time to teach well and IMO is worthy of more effort.

Okay. Let's make speech class required. It was when I was in school. Because it's important.

+100
Required public speaking classes should definitely be required.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Kids can do this in theater or speech class. Not sure it makes sense to prioritize this in English class when writing takes so much time to teach well and IMO is worthy of more effort.

Oh, but some school systems don't emphasize written expression either. Too difficult, along with memorization.

Yep. And correcting spelling and grammar is also "too difficult," plus it might hurt the students' feelings. This type of thing just can't be equitable.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Man oh Man! What a strange thing to care this much about. Ok Ok.. you did it in the 70's - great. I would rather my kids learn a foreign language or a programming language or some life skill (mechanics, shop, cooking). Something truly useful in life. Next you are gong to want them to have mandatory typing.

The typing class I took in 7th grade was one of the most practical classes I took in school. As was the speech class I took in 8th grade.

Nowadays, kids use laptops but don't learn how to touch type. So strange.

+1
Bring back actual typing instruction!!!

YES - my kids have started doing dance mat typing. It's their goal to learn how to type properly over the summer.

While we're at it, can we please bring back cursive writing? I'm an AP teacher. It takes them forever to write any notes. We could cover twice as much material if I didn't have to wait so long for them to write things down.

(Research shows that the brain processes information better when writing by hand than when typing, so while chromebooks in class have their uses, it's not a substitute for handwritten lecture notes.)

Completely agree. Writing things down is like writing it on your brain. I taught my own kids cursive since FCPS stopped doing so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn’t want my kids wasting time memorizing something like the Gettysburg address. Very pointless. In addition, some kids have issues with memorization. And can you imagine the teacher and students having to listen to 28 kids recite the Gettysburg address?!

Here are some reasons why memorization is important:

Proven benefits of memorization
Despite the existing backlash against memorization, rote learning has proven benefits. Here’s why it still plays a critical role in education:

1. Memorization Fosters Critical Thinking
Just like working out in the gym, challenging and consistent exercises are vital to the brain staying fit. Thus, a challenge like memorization is a great way to exercise your brain for better mental fitness.

2. Memorization Teaches Your Brain to Remember
It’s crucial to train your brain to remember. Memorizing gives your brain the strength to recall information. Therefore, memorizing any information over time rather than cramming makes your brain more receptive to remembering.

3. Improves Neural Plasticity
Through extended exercises in memorization, learners can retain more information. Accordingly, with repeated activation of the memory structures, you promote neuronal plasticity in the brain. According to MedicineNet, neuroplasticity allows neurons to respond to environmental changes by adjusting their activity.

4. Nursery School Rhymes Demonstrate Rhythmic Patterns
The repetition of nursery school rhymes teaches children memorization, a critical tool for children.

5. Memorization Benefits Through Mental Gymnastics
Neurobiologists believe that people who obsess over sports statistics make their brains agile and fast.

6. Knowing Frees Up Your Brain Capacity
Students who’ve memorized definitions, functions, equations, and other information can free up more brain capacity to use in other areas. If one has grasped all foundational concepts, one can move on to bigger concepts.

7. Memorization Improves Critical Thinking
Memorization lays an excellent foundation for cognitive development in the early stages. For instance, our early learning occurs through nursery school rhymes. Although these children don’t understand the structure, they learn through rhyme schemes.

8. Memory Training Starves Off Cognitive Decline
Adults who go through short periods of memory training are better off maintaining everyday skills and higher cognitive functions. Moreover, memorization allows adults to delay cognitive decline by 14 years.

9. Memorization Creates a Working Memory Necessary for Creativity
Working memory is necessary for creativity. Students who have mastered how to focus and develop their working memory through memorizing are more creative.

10. Memory Skills Help You Focus
When students memorize, they learn to focus. That said, students who practice memorizing at an early stage learn how to focus better on learning activities at high school and college levels.

Thank you for this. All very true.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn’t want my kids wasting time memorizing something like the Gettysburg address. Very pointless. In addition, some kids have issues with memorization. And can you imagine the teacher and students having to listen to 28 kids recite the Gettysburg address?!

Here are some reasons why memorization is important:

Proven benefits of memorization
Despite the existing backlash against memorization, rote learning has proven benefits. Here’s why it still plays a critical role in education:

1. Memorization Fosters Critical Thinking
Just like working out in the gym, challenging and consistent exercises are vital to the brain staying fit. Thus, a challenge like memorization is a great way to exercise your brain for better mental fitness.

2. Memorization Teaches Your Brain to Remember
It’s crucial to train your brain to remember. Memorizing gives your brain the strength to recall information. Therefore, memorizing any information over time rather than cramming makes your brain more receptive to remembering.

3. Improves Neural Plasticity
Through extended exercises in memorization, learners can retain more information. Accordingly, with repeated activation of the memory structures, you promote neuronal plasticity in the brain. According to MedicineNet, neuroplasticity allows neurons to respond to environmental changes by adjusting their activity.

4. Nursery School Rhymes Demonstrate Rhythmic Patterns
The repetition of nursery school rhymes teaches children memorization, a critical tool for children.

5. Memorization Benefits Through Mental Gymnastics
Neurobiologists believe that people who obsess over sports statistics make their brains agile and fast.

6. Knowing Frees Up Your Brain Capacity
Students who’ve memorized definitions, functions, equations, and other information can free up more brain capacity to use in other areas. If one has grasped all foundational concepts, one can move on to bigger concepts.

7. Memorization Improves Critical Thinking
Memorization lays an excellent foundation for cognitive development in the early stages. For instance, our early learning occurs through nursery school rhymes. Although these children don’t understand the structure, they learn through rhyme schemes.

8. Memory Training Starves Off Cognitive Decline
Adults who go through short periods of memory training are better off maintaining everyday skills and higher cognitive functions. Moreover, memorization allows adults to delay cognitive decline by 14 years.

9. Memorization Creates a Working Memory Necessary for Creativity
Working memory is necessary for creativity. Students who have mastered how to focus and develop their working memory through memorizing are more creative.

10. Memory Skills Help You Focus
When students memorize, they learn to focus. That said, students who practice memorizing at an early stage learn how to focus better on learning activities at high school and college levels.

A nursery rhyme is a lot easier to memorize than the Gettysburg Address. Please.

I know you are trolling at this point.

DP. Wow, speaking of trolling! The PP provided an excellent list of all the reasons memorization is good for the brain, and all you can come up with is your silly response? Of course nursery rhymes are easy to memorize - they're made for preschoolers. As children get older, they're capable of memorizing harder texts. I'm the PP whose daughter had to memorize "The Charge of the Light Brigade" - in 4th grade. She was so proud of herself when she finally got it and could recite it flawlessly - with knowledge of what it meant and how it should be delivered. Sorry your kids haven't made it past their ABCs...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn’t want my kids wasting time memorizing something like the Gettysburg address. Very pointless. In addition, some kids have issues with memorization. And can you imagine the teacher and students having to listen to 28 kids recite the Gettysburg address?!

And some kids have trouble with math, but are still required to take it. So many excuses, no wonder FCPS is what it is nowadays.

How many classes do you think it is appropriate to waste listening to students receipt the same speech for the teacher to grade?

Seriously? This could be a semester long (memorizing at home, analyzing in class) project, at which point the class could hear a couple of students per day at the end. But do continue making this out to be some complicated, insurmountable burden! You just look ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn’t want my kids wasting time memorizing something like the Gettysburg address. Very pointless. In addition, some kids have issues with memorization. And can you imagine the teacher and students having to listen to 28 kids recite the Gettysburg address?!

And some kids have trouble with math, but are still required to take it. So many excuses, no wonder FCPS is what it is nowadays.

How many classes do you think it is appropriate to waste listening to students receipt the same speech for the teacher to grade?

NP. Why do you think it would be the same speech? When I had to memorize a Shakespeare soliloquy in high school we had lots to choose from. You're inventing reasons to oppose this that aren't based in reality

+100
Letting the kids choose what they want to memorize would also expose all the kids to different selections.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn’t want my kids wasting time memorizing something like the Gettysburg address. Very pointless. In addition, some kids have issues with memorization. And can you imagine the teacher and students having to listen to 28 kids recite the Gettysburg address?!

Yes--what is the point of learning the words of one of our greatest Presidents? What is the point of learning how and where he wrote it? What is the point of knowing why he wrote it? What is the point of learning the history of what happened at Gettysburg?

Exactly. Some of these posters, presumably parents, make me so sad for their kids.

Can you recite the gettysburg address from memory? If not, do you know what it was about?

Most of it, and yes - of course I know what it was about. Didn't you learn this in school?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn’t want my kids wasting time memorizing something like the Gettysburg address. Very pointless. In addition, some kids have issues with memorization. And can you imagine the teacher and students having to listen to 28 kids recite the Gettysburg address?!

And some kids have trouble with math, but are still required to take it. So many excuses, no wonder FCPS is what it is nowadays.

+1000 kids are coddled way too much today. If kids can’t memorize facts or equations how will they function later in life. They won’t. They will be led by their iPhone. A scary future.

Kids will utilize math and lots of facts in everyday life, true. Will they use their rote memorization of the Gettysburg address? They won't, admit it.

Ah. Another parent who pushes only STEM subjects and thinks the humanities are useless. You are being extremely literal, as I'm sure is your intent. Why are you fixated on The Gettysburg Address, to the exclusion of so many other works? The idea of being well-rounded and well-versed culturally must really trigger you for some reason.
DP

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn’t want my kids wasting time memorizing something like the Gettysburg address. Very pointless. In addition, some kids have issues with memorization. And can you imagine the teacher and students having to listen to 28 kids recite the Gettysburg address?!

And some kids have trouble with math, but are still required to take it. So many excuses, no wonder FCPS is what it is nowadays.

+1000 kids are coddled way too much today. If kids can’t memorize facts or equations how will they function later in life. They won’t. They will be led by their iPhone. A scary future.

No one want to hire you to be a slow expensive calculator or Google search page.

[Anonymous]

I remember being motivated to memorize The Charge of the Light Brigade after watching this:
https://www.facebook.com/Jerniganlanding/videos/1068591639900872/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn’t want my kids wasting time memorizing something like the Gettysburg address. Very pointless. In addition, some kids have issues with memorization. And can you imagine the teacher and students having to listen to 28 kids recite the Gettysburg address?!

Yes--what is the point of learning the words of one of our greatest Presidents? What is the point of learning how and where he wrote it? What is the point of knowing why he wrote it? What is the point of learning the history of what happened at Gettysburg?

Exactly. Some of these posters, presumably parents, make me so sad for their kids.

Can you recite the gettysburg address from memory? If not, do you know what it was about?

I'll give it a shot:
"Four score and seven years ago,
Our forefathers brought forth upon this continent a new nation, forged in Liberty, something in justice, and dedicated to the principle that all men are created equal. "

Pretty close.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn’t want my kids wasting time memorizing something like the Gettysburg address. Very pointless. In addition, some kids have issues with memorization. And can you imagine the teacher and students having to listen to 28 kids recite the Gettysburg address?!

Here are some reasons why memorization is important:

Proven benefits of memorization
Despite the existing backlash against memorization, rote learning has proven benefits. Here’s why it still plays a critical role in education:

1. Memorization Fosters Critical Thinking
Just like working out in the gym, challenging and consistent exercises are vital to the brain staying fit. Thus, a challenge like memorization is a great way to exercise your brain for better mental fitness.

2. Memorization Teaches Your Brain to Remember
It’s crucial to train your brain to remember. Memorizing gives your brain the strength to recall information. Therefore, memorizing any information over time rather than cramming makes your brain more receptive to remembering.

3. Improves Neural Plasticity
Through extended exercises in memorization, learners can retain more information. Accordingly, with repeated activation of the memory structures, you promote neuronal plasticity in the brain. According to MedicineNet, neuroplasticity allows neurons to respond to environmental changes by adjusting their activity.

4. Nursery School Rhymes Demonstrate Rhythmic Patterns
The repetition of nursery school rhymes teaches children memorization, a critical tool for children.

5. Memorization Benefits Through Mental Gymnastics
Neurobiologists believe that people who obsess over sports statistics make their brains agile and fast.

6. Knowing Frees Up Your Brain Capacity
Students who’ve memorized definitions, functions, equations, and other information can free up more brain capacity to use in other areas. If one has grasped all foundational concepts, one can move on to bigger concepts.

7. Memorization Improves Critical Thinking
Memorization lays an excellent foundation for cognitive development in the early stages. For instance, our early learning occurs through nursery school rhymes. Although these children don’t understand the structure, they learn through rhyme schemes.

8. Memory Training Starves Off Cognitive Decline
Adults who go through short periods of memory training are better off maintaining everyday skills and higher cognitive functions. Moreover, memorization allows adults to delay cognitive decline by 14 years.

9. Memorization Creates a Working Memory Necessary for Creativity
Working memory is necessary for creativity. Students who have mastered how to focus and develop their working memory through memorizing are more creative.

10. Memory Skills Help You Focus
When students memorize, they learn to focus. That said, students who practice memorizing at an early stage learn how to focus better on learning activities at high school and college levels.

That's ChatGPT