Rote

“Learning by rote” is a phrase used to dismiss the boon of learning by heart.

The difference between heart and rote was noted by Shakespeare: speaking by rote means speaking, not . . .

. . . by the matter which your heart prompts you,
But with such words that are but roted in
Your tongue, though but bastards and syllables
Of no allowance to your bosom’s truth.

Coriolanus, c.1606.^R76

The idea that teaching should not require learning by heart on the grounds that it is mere rote-learning is attributed to the philosopher of education John Dewey (1859–1952), but that’s not what he meant, and he did not use the word “rote”. What he was against was not the engagement of memory—by, for instance, learning poetry—but the practice of unloading large amounts of information onto children for no good reason. What he was for was education that connects with culture, community and nature. He distinguished between going through the motions of learning and . . .

. . . the readjustment of mental attitude, the enlarged and sympathetic vision, the sense of growing power, and the willing ability to identify both insight and capacity with the interests of the world and man. . . . [Culture is] the growth of the imagination in flexibility, in scope, and in sympathy, till the life which the individual lives is informed with the life of nature and society.^R77

That’s lean education.