“I don’t know what’s the matter with people: they don’t learn by understanding, they learn by some other way — by rote or something. Their knowledge is so fragile!”
― Richard Feynman
Memorization essential means you are grabbing the information available to you through your senses and just pushing them into your mind.
The whole education system is largely about this only.
A book, written in a very boring manner has some information which you need to fill in your mind and vomit it off on a sheet of paper which eventually is going to decide what degree you’ll fetch in the few decades of education you had.
But let me tell you a better fact,
Google has a way better technology of remembering things and telling you more than needed, in just a few milliseconds!
Forming the mind is what education essentially means.
Filling the mind is what education essentially does.
Unfortunately this is what our education system trains us to do in the name of degree. And while we chase being a degree holder, we often leave behind the will to achieve our dreams.
Dreams are underrated.
Degrees are overrated.
But if memorization was so wrong then why the hell it come into existence?
See, memorization is important even if you don’t want to, you still end up memorizing what food you had last night in your dinner or say few years back, how the favorite team of your favorite sports, lost the game by just a little margin.
Memorization is important, but only when it happens done involuntarily.
And, this very involuntarily memorization is essential termed as understanding.
Understanding swims into the principles of expanding the mind beyond the information available to us.
Understanding has a role to generate better quality information, obviously with a solid firm source behind.
Understanding is fun to the brain because it is an exercise to the product of the brain. And that product is our very thoughts.
The thoughts you are having while reading this article or while scrolling your mobile screens back and forth.
Understanding is the Elixir to Our Stream of common Thoughts
Common thoughts means they are directed towards a particular thing and aren’t so random.
Random is, you know it is not possible for an elephant to have a zebra color body but still you are thinking about it while reading this line.
And simultaneously you are thinking about the quality of example portrayed to you by the author and simultaneously a few good or bad things about the way he writes.
You observe, that none of the three things here connect well with each other, that what actually is a volley of random thoughts.
Understanding on the other hand has more range of quality thoughts upon the one common idea you already have or is having right now.
There are two ways you can see this:
- Memorize and then understanding will come.
- Understand and then memorization will come.
It’s clear that the latter one is always a better approach because when you understand it beyond the dimensions of your mind’s memory, you don’t actually need to mug it up word by word and force it upon yourself.
Conclusion:
We, as the most advanced creature of this planet have the most advanced form of neurology inside our heads.
Just give yourself some time and think,
Is it meaningful to just become a mortal version of Google and fill the mind with information?
No!
Information is a tool to form the base of your understandings about life and living.
But when information is just a few clicks away, what is the point of trying to push it into your mind and making the mind a storehouse of thoughts rather than a factory, a beautiful factory of thoughts.
So, whenever you approach to learn something make sure you use information as your tool and, understanding as your path.
Memorization will not be the issue if you completely understand the mechanism, you actually could create a better or a beta version of whatever understanding you had from the available information.
Information is good but,
Intuition is always superior.
Make sure you use the intelligence of your being and not the intelligence of trained minds to discover the true potential of your living experience.
Thanks for reading!
Until next time,
Namaskaram!
