Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1922-09-12
LEARN BY THINKING
By H. Addington Bruce
THERE is just one way really to le

| = Il
anything, and that Is by thinking
- about it. If only this truth could be
sufficiently impressed on the thousands OF
young people who enter school and college
every fall, far fewer would come to grief be-
fore their educational pilgrimage is done.
Some students, of course, fail because their
innate mental ability is not equal to the
tasks set. But of those who fail, it is safe
to say, the great majority owe their failure
| either to outright negligence or to the adopt
| ing of wrong study methods.
| And among such methods none is more
frequently adopted than the method Of learn
ing by memorization. This actually, is no
learning method at ALL
1t may suffice to enable students blessed
with uncommonly capacious memories to
pass their examinations. 1t does not suffice
to enable them to retain for any length OF
time that which they foolishly imagine they
have really learned.
To the larger number Of students it is
hurtful rather than helpful, even for exam
| ination purposes. This because-especially
after they have begun college work-the sub
jects they take up for study require so much
collateral reading that any attempt to mas
ter them by the memory method leads only
to mental fatigue and memory confusion.
Hence the frequently observed phenom-
enon of students, when question is put to
them in classroom or examination hall, Civ
ing answers that would be correct if the
question were different.
Having learned by memory instead of by
thinking, they do not understand the ques'
! ton asked. Something in its wording starts
an erroneous memory association, which they
would have recognized as erroneous had they
understood the question. Not having this
corrective aid they confidently give the
answer which association has misleadingly
brought UP in their minds.
Or there may be, and frequently are, com
plete memory failures. So much has had to
be studied that the overloaded memory goes
on strike precisely when it is most in de-
mand, and it's unhappy possessor remembers
nothing Of that which he has so laboriousy
tried to learn by heart"
Had he adopted the better method oil
learning by thinking he would have escaped
the ignominy Of continuous confession OF
Don't know"
For his thinking would have given him
understanding, and understanding would it.
| self have strengthened and refreshed his
memory. One always remembers mos
! surely that which one best understands
| Moreover, through understanding he would
| have been enabled to phrase, in his own
! words, an answer not merely correct but
| luminously explicit.
To students in general, then, would say
| Think rather than memoriZe when syol
I study. Be sure you grasp the meaning O.
every statement in your textbooks. II il
doubt, question your instructor, or wher
that is not possible, talk the matter owe
with fellow students.
"Make it rule, indeed always to Civ
more thought to what you read than to thu
reading itself. Don't cease paying attention
the moment you lay the textbook down.
"And while this may temporarily meal
devoting more time to study than you hat
expected to devote, it should in the end max
all study easier for you. Thinking increase
| the power to think rapidly and effectively
In any case, it means better results in poin
of gaining knowledge and wisdom"
And surely the great reason for going t.
school and to college is to grow both NOR
| learned and more wise. The two, remembe1
always, are by no means Identical Con
corning the differences between them, I will
have something to say another day.