Postby Shiloh Adlar » Sat Mar 17, 2018 4:07 am
I think there is certainly still a need to memorize things, however, having the internet and google or whatever search engine one chooses to use so we have information at our fingertips is very useful nowadays. I watched a video not too long ago where students were paired up in a competition. At first the questions they were given were easy so they answered them fine. However, the questions began to get harder and harder so they gave them materials to use. One group got encyclopedias and a dictionary while the other got a laptop. The difference in finding the answer to the questions was astounding. The team with the laptop had a majorly unfair advantage. The whole point was to show how certain children are at a disadvantage in school because they do not have access to the internet.
The question you are asking though is whether we still have a need for memorization which I said yes to. When a doctor is in surgery, they can't google up really fast how to use a scalpel or how to stop internal bleeding. They just have to know. Even someone working in retail needs to memorize store policies, where things are, special discounts and promotions, as well as codes and numbers for emergencies to best perform their job and help the costumer. If they had to spend that time Googling the answers or searching their store website for that information, the customer would grow frustrated at having to wait.
All of this to say, the internet is a very important tool nowadays to assist learning, but that doesn't mean it should ever be a permanent replacement for a well working mind.
Shiloh Adlar, Sixth Year, Prefect, RQT Co-Captain"Let us read, and let us dance; these two amusements will never do any harm to the world." -Voltaire