Rensselaer Union, Volume 8, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 October 1875 — Trained Memory. [ARTICLE]

Trained Memory.

Much is said contemptuously of meinoriter recitations. A child is given a lesson and he is expected on the next day, or at the, next hour, to give not the matter of the lesson, but a learned disquisition on the same subject, or at least a skillful paraphrase of the text. This is all very well in theory, but how is it in practice? Time was when th* teacher, with book in hand, watched and even pointed to each word, as it was spoken by the pupil. But in trying to shake off the chains of that text-book slavery we have made ourselves a little ridiculous by compelling little children, or attempting to compel them, to handle written discourse with the skill of art and judgment of maturity. Some'faithfulness to the author in hand is not amiss in a recitation. This disregard of the author’s words encouraged by so many practical schoolmasters has brought about a looseness and inaccuracy of expression, and consequently a cloudiness of thought, that is as much to be deplored as the parrot-like performances of the older method. Moreover, one of the chief objects of 1 education is to cultivate the memory, and not only memory, but an exact memory. Nature, by unmistakable signs, has indicated that early youth is the time in which this should be done. But how can it be done if the only method at hand, the learning of paragraphs by heart, be studiously and persistently discouraged? There is a time for all things and a place for all things, even for the practice of committing printed matter to memory. The only direction to be heeded is that it be done intelligently, with a fair understanding of the meaning of the language so memorized. This may easily be done by the teacher’s asking the definition of some particular words, or a paraphrase of the more complex passages. Language memorized gives fluency, an accomplishment in which Americans do not excel. The practice of considering everything deliberately, of attempting to recite matter imperfectly learned, of putting memory’s burden on the back of reasoning, which prevails in our schools and colleges, has resulted in our public speakers being guilty of disgraceful drawling, repetition and hesitation, for which the more disgraceful written discourse is tlie usual remedy. Your ready, fluent, graceful, extemporaneous speakers are really those who, in youth, trained their memory, in spite of the sneers of the schoolmasters and the laxity of the schools. Say what you may, grace and fluency in delivery, pointed paragraphs, rounded periods and, better than all, the trick of stopping when one is done can be attained only by training the memory for ready recitation at school. The very etymology of theword rc-cite shows what a recitation should be.— National Teachers' Monthly.