The following is an on-line commentary, I posted in response to an article in Scientific American on p 32 of the Aug 2013 issue.

"David Pogue’s commentary, “The Last Thing You’ll Memorize,” oversimplifies the argument against memorization.  It misses a fundamental aspect of humankind’s uniqueness—our ability to use that which we have memorized to “bravely go where no man has gone before.”  Whether it be a surgeon skillfully applying her knowledge of the human body and the tools she is using to the unique operation at hand, or the inventor bringing together two disparate facts from two previously unrelated disciplines to form in his mind an idea never conceived by anyone before, we excel at using what we have memorized to do the impossible.

The greatest source of failure for my students in human anatomy and physiology was their inability to memorize the long lists of anatomical terms and physiological phenomena necessary to come to an understanding of the intricate simplicity of our body’s inner workings that would be essential to their future success in their chosen health field.

Having several patents, I can confidently state that had I relied upon Wikipedia to give me the facts I needed to forge the new ideas, I never would have known where to search in the first place.

At the same time, I often use the internet to find the facts I need and sometimes I commit these facts to memory and sometimes I do not, the difference being dictated by how much I think I’ll need the facts in the future.

So the bottom line is this:  Without focusing on the memorized material, we need to teach the skill of memorization in primary and secondary school in addition to teaching the skill of searching the internet.  To do any less is failing to capitalize on our strength as a species.

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