Memorize Less, Understand More by Bailey

Memorize Less, Understand More by Bailey - January 2015 Scholarship Essay

Each year, students spend approximately 1,260 hours in school. Some of that time is spent socializing, eating lunch, and participating in non-academic classes like physical education or a study hall, but the majority of the time is spent listening to teachers. Many teachers throw up a PowerPoint, run through bullet points from the text book, and then give you a test. This method of teaching, however, is highly inefficient for helping students actually learn and understand the material.

There is only one teacher whose teaching style was perfect for me, and his motto was “memorize as little as possible, understand as much as possible.” This history teacher never used a PowerPoint, canned notes, a book, or anything but his own knowledge and experience. The only visual aids he used were maps of different regions so we could visualize the area we were studying. Instead of conventional tests, we wrote in-class essays utilizing an open outline and rough draft format.

In this teacher’s class, we experienced a direct correlation between hard work and good grades. He served as a role model arriving at school every morning at 5:30 and stayed after school until every student received the help they needed. My one piece of advice for teachers would be to help students learn by understanding as much as possible and memorizing as little as possible. When teachers truly know the subject they are teaching, it comes across to students as more genuine and makes it easier to learn.