After being in BITS for some 18 months, one thing in which I have miserably failed, is quizzing. I am often stunned by the amount of stuff people remember and after every quiz that I attend, I wonder how these guys manage to recall things effortlessly.
Memorizing is an integral part of our society and has been a part from many, many years ago when students were asked to mug up thousands of shlokas and mantras by their guru. There were thousands of methods presented by vedic mathematics which could be memorized for speedy calculations. We too, as students, grew up cramming many things in our minds. Right from nursery rhymes, mathematical tables to many different variations of the same formula. “…….Son, quickly recite ‘twinkle twinkle’ and show uncle how smart you are” ………haven’t we heard this countless times during our childhood. Throughout our school life we gobble up standard solutions, formulas, maps, names, answers. Our education system and the environment we are brought up in makes us very efficient in memorizing. Our parents, teachers and the entire society shoves us in to the rat race of getting good grades and we, very conveniently, mug up stuff as that’s what we are efficient at. We hardly ever try out things on our own, develop unique methods, learn by analyzing stuff instead of just ctrl-c and ctrl-ving things. Knowing things, remembering stuff is an extremely difficult task and being efficient at memorizing stuff is indeed very useful and essential. Remembering more stuff enhances one’s ability to inter-relate and reason out logically as lesser would be the assumptions in his logic. So developing a good memory is essential; however it shouldn’t be the only motive in the learning process. Further, according to me the weightage given to memorizing should be lesser than that given to development of analytical and reasoning abilities. Here are the reasons why I think so:
1. With technology advancing and availability of calculators, google, Wikipedia etc. we have access to whatever information we need. Also, the access to these things is becoming easier and faster day by day.
2. Practical applications demand analytical reasoning much more than memorizing.
3. Memorizing a piece of code or design of a machine won’t make anyone an efficient engineer.
4. Most of the inventions made were not due to inventors remembering stuff which others didn’t. Rather, it was the way inventors perceived facts known to many.
5. As per the present scenario, finding a substitute for human memory seems much more feasible than replication of the ‘thinking’ part of the human brain.
Many inventions were made last century and the contribution of Indians to them is relatively insignificant. I am of the opinion that the major reason for this is not lack of resources but our attitude towards learning. The process of learning should be such that it is more of an encouragement to think and reason out stuff rather than just cluttering of our minds with information. It is high time that we start taking measures to ensure such kind of learning process. And as I mentioned before a good memory is the cherry on the cake……but not the cake.
8 comments:
Phodu post hai.
nice post..
when we were having this debate with binit, i recall i was on the same side as you, so i guess i can't have too much to add to the monkly musings. But i don't think it's true that people are only attempting to replicate human thinking.. people are working on memory substitutes all the time( think books and the internet), only it isn't quite put that way.. At least that's what i think..
true..the only point is the futility of our thoughts.Just a few comments on your blog that will be it.Why dont people from the AICTE get to read such blogs? Are they closed to feedback or just plain ignorant?
My advice: load it with more technical stuff and stats.and push it into the inbox of one of those officers.Its time we speak out.not only through blogs but to people who matter.
4,00,000 engineering graduates per year.and only a fraction are employable.The system is so fucked up.
I almost always had the problem of memorizing stuff. Even when i managed to learn something, the transfer of knowledge from the temporary part of my brain to the permanaent section was never that easy. And so i questioned the logic behind this routine, one of the answers was "how will you reach the top floor without traversing the 1st and 2nd floors? And if you forget the way to the 1st and 2nd floors u'll have to search for the stairs all over again. "
I completely agree that the primary aim of education should be understanding, but once that is done, the understanding must be engraved in the memory forever.
Reply from swamynomics.blogspot.com
Well what i meant about demand stagnating was that it clearly is not inline with the price rise.. an optimistic view too gives a rise in demand of 4-5% in crude.. definitely doesn't justify the price rise.. and totally agree with Arjun Murti's theory.. its basically about when rather than will the bubble burst? Subsidy is one reason for a sustaining demand.. but its hardly an incentive to double crude consumption.. so my opinion is that the prices really havent caught up to the rise in demand or the shortfall in supply but zoomed past and have reached unrealistc levels.. maybe the time for speculators is going to be over very soon..
PS: The name was never chosen to make it look deceptive
Rote,ghot,phod..the dedicated students' mantra..but pratically speaking it's difficult to assess with other criteria..say for CP-1/2..it would be great to be graded on a project on a real life application..but we all know that only 10% will strive and the others will tag along
Unfortunate but true..we cut corners
Very true... Especially at school-level, you find people mugging up problems, instead of actually trying to understand how it is done..
Cramming things up sustains the 'knowledge' only for a few hours, or days. What you understand is something you'll always be able to remember/figure out years later...
I now 'understand' why you are the monk :P
Anyway, I have the same problem as Rohan as far as memorizing is concerned, but somehow the basic concepts stick to my mind more or less once i have understood them very clearly. I have been very lucky in the sense that my school teachers always focused on understanding and remembering the concepts rather than memorizing everything, and that's really the way i manage the courses even at bits.
Completely agree with last line written by Rohan and by Pranshu.
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