I rarely give my students passages to memorize. Instead we read and talk about the significant ideas contained in important passages. Sometimes I wonder if I am doing them a disservice not to require that they put them to heart. I remember hating to have to memorize. Yet decades later I find it to be rewarding when I can recall a passage and once again ponder the beauty and import of certain works. Memorized verses of Scripture, poetry and other works seem to be mental anchors around which I can tie new and challenging ideas. Today’s students have laptops and other electronic devices that instantly find and reproduce almost any literary content. Has memorization become a non-essential? With a small handheld device my wife can within a few seconds find factual answers to most anything that strikes our curiosity.
Yet I am uneasy about the mere reproduction of facts as opposed to thinking about things. A set of encyclopedias whether on paper or on an electronic screen is only information. Information is the stuff of thought. It is fodder for ideas. It is the inspiration for the creation of new concepts and new understandings. I must teach my students to love. Love is the foundation of all true education. It is that which builds character and prepares people for unselfish service, the only avenue to lasting happiness. Will it not enhance their journey to put 1 Corinthians 13 into their mental library? The Psalmist wrote, “Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee.” When temptation comes they will not check their laptops. But they will certainly check the content of their characters. Something needs to be there.
Written by Roger Bothwell on August 31, 2010
Spring of Life Ministry, PO Box 124, St. Helena, CA 94574
Rogerbothwell.org