Then the education system has a serious problem. Kids respond to incentives. Memorizing formulas would work only if students can get by homework and exams with rote memorization. We probably should learn from Russia/India/Korea/China, where it's almost impossible for students to pass STEM exams with mere memorization. Not that their exams are hard. It's just that their educators take effort to make sure the problems in their exams encourage intuitive understanding, original thinking, and creative problem solving. Ironically, US universities do exactly that in their classrooms. I wonder why high schools can't just do the same.