To Build a Brain
That's Really Wise,
Come On, Dude, Let's
Memorize
For snack,
have some whole-grain crackers, and say aloud and memorize as many lines as you
can from the box or wrapper. After this activity, see how much of it you
remember.
----------------
Why is memorization important? In
this day and age, with unlimited information at our fingertips available with a
few keystrokes on an Internet search engine, who cares how much you "know by
heart" any more?
But oh, yes, memorization is crucial
to being smart. Here's why: the faster you can memorize things accurately, the
faster you can apply that information to other information, and come up with
thoughts, opinions, ideas and insights. The hard work that it takes to develop
good memorization skills also gives you self-discipline, which is perhaps the
most important ingredient of all.
If you don't have very much
information already safely deposited in your memory banks, then it just takes
you that much longer to learn new material so that you can learn MORE new
material to put together. You get a slow start on the learning track, which
makes it that much harder to succeed.
The No. 1 difference between a
student who does very well in school, and one who does not, is much more easily
measured by memorization ability than intelligence per se. It is only applied
intelligence that really pays off. The speed of acquiring new information
depends in large part to how well you've trained yourself to memorize.
Memorization skills are most obvious
in the important areas of reading and writing:
● If you have memorized the
principles of English grammar and punctuation, and know the differences in the
parts of speech by heart, you can put words together more successfully and write
meaningful text more quickly and accurately than students who have not.
● If you have memorized the
rules of spelling, you can apply those rules instantly to unfamiliar words and
spell words correctly the first time, so you don't have to waste time looking
them up in the dictionary, or worse, getting them marked as wrong in your
papers.
● In reading, if you were
taught to read with phonics, you have committed the rules of phonetics to
memory, and automatically decode words using those memorized rules, whether you
are conscious of it or not. If not, then the farther along you go in school,
the more difficult the text is going to be for you.
Convinced? Well, then, let's go to
work on your memorization skills. What better way than the old-fashioned way -
memorizing and reciting poetry! The rhythm of verse is a huge help to
memorizing ideas, and memorizing poetry will jump-start your brain in important
ways.
Start off with a couple lines of
verse, then memorize a poem of about 10 lines, and work your way up to an
entire, lengthy poem. Then memorize another one, and then another. Just read a
line out loud, think what it means, read it out loud again, then cover the text
and say it from memory. Do that line by line, adding a line each practice
session, 'til you have it down pat. Keep a list of the poems you have
memorized, and practice them from time to time. Impress your friends - and most
of all, take pride in your accomplishments.
You'll be amazed how developing your
memory will help you in all kinds of reading and writing - even forms of
reading and writing that have nothing whatsoever to do with poetry, but involve
science or history or even on-the-job communication tasks.
That's because with memorization skills, you're building
your brain - remember?
Here are three poems - short, medium,
and long -- to get you started:
Perseverance
If a task is once begun
Never leave it till it's done.
Be the labor great or small
Do it well or not at all.
-- Anonymous
From Rabbi Ben Ezra
Grow old along with me!
The
best is yet to be,
The last of life, for which the
first was made:
Our times are in his hand
Who saith: "A whole I planned,
Youth shows but half; trust God, see
all, nor be afraid."
Ah, but a man's reach should exceed
his grasp,
Or what's a heaven for?
-- Robert Browning
Love
I love you,
Not only for what you are,
But for what I am
When I am with you.
I love you,
Not only for what
You have made of yourself,
But for what
You are making of me.
I love you
For the part of me
That you bring out;
I love you
For putting your hand
Into my heaped-up heart
And passing over
All the foolish, weak things
That you can't help
Dimly seeing there,
And for drawing out
Into the light
All the beautiful belongings
That no one else had looked
Quite far enough to find.
I love you because you
Are helping me to make
Of the lumber of my life
Not a tavern
But a temple;
Out of the works
Of my every day
Not a reproach
But a song.
I love you
Because you have done
More than any creed
Could have done
To make me good,
And more than any fate
Could have done
To make me happy.
You have done it
Without a touch,
Without a word,
Without a sign.
You have done it
By being yourself;
Perhaps that is what
Being a friend means
After all.
-- Anonymous
