Why You Forgot Everything You Learned In School (And How To Change That)
Listen, we all feel like we could use a bit of memory training. Let’s start with a small thought experiment. Take a minute to think back to your science classes in high school and see how much you can recall.
Can you explain the elements that make up an atom, or the basic principles of plant biology? How about physics, or simple chemistry? Do facts and procedures come rushing back, or do you remember your teacher’s face, or the way the room smelled after an experiment?
Everyone will have different memories, and they may have very little to do with what you were taught in class. You might not remember anything at all. It’s extraordinary how quickly we manage to forget what we crammed during all those long hours of study. Algebra. Long division. Verbs, adverbs and relative clauses. The causes of World War I. Where did it all go, we muse, years later?
It is extraordinary that so many of the world’s education systems, which are usually based on testing how well a student can recall and apply information, are designed without any real thought of how our memories work. Memory is perhaps the most fundamental factor in how human beings learn. Memory training should inform all aspects of education; instead, it’s an afterthought.
Advances in cognitive science have huge implications for how we learn and remember things. It’s time for policymakers, educators, and anyone who wants to learn something — in other words, all of us — to start listening.