I believe the purpose of learning is to enable the student ‘to learn’: anything that enables learning should be encouraged; anything that detracts from learning by the child should be discouraged. The learning of multiplication, for instance, is not AT ALL enabled for any child (I believe) by sticking him/her in a class with 30-40 (or more) other children all SHOUTING OUT their ‘times-tables’. True, this may be the way that most Indian schools ‘teach’ – but it would not be difficult to set up a demonstration of hw ineffective and inefficient it is. The Montessori education system has very different philosophy and approach from ‘by-rote’ learning – and it is one that, I believe, should be understood by all educators.

It is true that some ‘by-rote learning’ does take place in any learning. I’d suggest that the true teacher – one thoroughly trained in the ‘Montessori method’ would soon understand how useful/not useful by-hearting things may be for each of his/her wards and would adjust accordingly. And also that Enrico Fermi and Professor R.K. Paranjpe are not the best models of effective learning by children!

– GSC

By emphasizing on rote, one kills the creativity, or blunts it. No wonder Hardy is a much more famous mathematician than Paranjape. And probably you also can not name a lot of ‘Senior Wranglers’ from your memory.

It’s true that progressive ideological fads have remained unpopular in India, so the ideological contempt of rote is less there in India than in many other countries. But this isn’t quite the same as saying that Indians are good at, or think highly of, rote. The various slang words for rote in Hindi (to take one example) are not typically used in a complimentary.

Also, the extent to which people memorize stuff is highly correlated with people’s level of understanding of stuff, for reason which you’ve alluded to. Generally, I find that more intelligent people are more likely to memorize stuff, regardless of the culture they hail from. Of course, this is all anecdotal, and I’d be happy to defer to any systematic evidence on the matter if it’s been collected.

Nothing (subject to some glaring exceptions) should be seen as an unrequited bad. While seeing things in such a bipolar fashion has the advantage of simplicity, it does as you sat throw the baby out with the bathwater. It’s imperative we recognise the shades of grey.