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Comment by tkahn6 | Hacker News Reader

I've found that process of deciphering Shakespeare is as exhilarating as attempting to comprehend a new topic in mathematics. It feels like I'm using the same parts of my brain. I do really enjoy reading and understanding Shakespeare.

Memorizing Shakespeare, though, has nothing to do with this process. Of course one needs a working memory of the text to put it all in context, but rote memorization of a passage is orthogonal to understanding it.

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Asking students to memorize Shakespeare is a proxy for asking them to understand it. By asking them to memorize it, anyone with an intellect and an interest will take the opportunity to study it, while still leaving incapable students with a way to make the grade.

If you don't think that incapable high school students ought to have a way to make the grade, you have a problem with a lot more than this teacher's assignment.

That said, I think there are much worse things a teenager could do with his time than simply memorizing passages of literature. The art that lives in my mind has given me great comfort and inspiration already in my short life.

That's an interesting perspective. I think you may be right. The problem is that, when I've understood a passage from Shakespeare -- really understood it -- I still cannot recite it verbatim. I can tell you what it means, I could write a paper on it if you wanted me to, but memorizing it and being able to repeat it back to you word for word has nothing to do with my understanding of it. So, in my experience, it's a really poor proxy to assess one's understanding of the text.

I can only say that memorizing a large passage of shakespeare was demanding and interesting to me in ways I hadn't anticipated, yet still easier than I expected, and the passage and (positive) experience has stuck with me since junior high school (... and that's a long time).

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