Chapter 12 Memory

In the twelfth talk James discusses how memory is more than just a faculty.  He also talks about how it is the association of ideas.  He also says that teachers shouldn’t measure gains of their students by their proficiency in directly reproducing in a recitation or an examination.

“Cramming seeks to stamp things in by intense application immediately before the ordeal.  But a thing thus learned can form but few associations.  On the other hand, the same thing recurring on different days, in different contexts, read, recited on, referred to again and again, related to other things and reviewed, gets well wrought into the mental structure.  This is the reason why you should enforce on your pupils habits of continuous application.” (p. 64)  I really enjoyed the passage from James talk because I can relate.  I had a lot of wonderful teachers that I learned a lot from but I was not taught early on how to get information to stay in my memory.  I remember in elementary school everything was repeated more often in class but as I got older things were not repeated as much.  The teachers were required to get through more material but I was not taught how to keep the information in my memory.  Many times I would cram for a test but I was unable to retain a lot of the information.  I am not sure but what age would be a good age to show the students how to study?  Do the teachers even know how to study themselves?  I know my brother would never have to study because he had the ability to remember pretty much anything that he was shown.  What do you do when you have students with that ability?  Or teachers that had that ability so the don’t know how to study?