Repetition is the Mother of Memory
In past articles on pedagogical principles I noted that the principles of festina lente and multum non multa are closely related like sisters. If these two sisters have a mother it would have to be memory. In Greek mythology, memory or Mnemosyne ( nee-mos-uh-nee) is the mother of nine daughters that were called the muses. These muses include a muse for history, poetry, singing, dancing, and even astronomy. As the myth indicates, memory gives birth to many important muse-ical arts. Memory is so important that without a good, well-furnished memory, it is virtually impossible to make progress in the other arts.
The Latin maxim repetitio mater memoria indicates that even memory has a mother–repetition. Repetition gives birth to memory; memory gives birth to the arts. At the very least, we can say that memory is indispensable to ongoing learning, that it makes further learning not only possible but it propagates it.
The ancients and medievals clearly valued memory more than we do, and they were able to cultivate memory far more deeply and extensively than we. There are a few reasons for this. The ancients, before the invention of the printing press (1450) did not have access to cheap books. Books were expensive, very expensive, as they had to be copied out by hand on perishable material like papyrus or vellum (which was extraordinarily expensive). As a result, it was important to memorize passages from books that one could only borrow (or hear read). Second, there were many cultural practices that naturally encouraged memory such as oratory, story-telling, and liturgy. It was common, for example, for Benedictine monks to memorize the entire book of Psalms within two years simply by singing through the entire psalter every week in worship. Third, there was far less to distract ancient students compared to our contemporary culture.
Memory was the one of the five rules of rhetoric–no one could be considered a trained speaker without having cultivated the capacity to memorize. Today, modern educators often downplay the role of memory, arguing that we can instantly look up any factual information on our smartphones. It turns out, however, that our smartphones also distract us incessantly, impeding our ability to think, contemplate, and attend to matters that require careful thought and reflection. Modern educators also deride the work of memory as tedious drudgery that kills the love of learning, sometimes characterizing memory work and recitation as “drill and kill” pedagogy.
It is true that repetition, review, and recitation can be turned into dreary exercises that fail to cultivate wonder, love, and attention in students. Any good principle or practice can be distorted and misapplied. But let us consider what repetition as a principle really is. It is not mere repetition for repetition’s sake. It is not teaching the same thing, the same way, over and over. It is not forcing students to do what’s unpleasant and irrelevant to their lives because we believe it is “good for them” like eating broccoli or taking medicine.
At its core, repetition is a search for what one previously found and loved. The Latin word literally means “a seeking again.” It is a petition that is repeated. Why do we read the Psalms over and over or a great poem like Hopkin’s “God’s Grandeur?” For that matter, why do we return to the same vacation spot, revisit certain restaurants, or re-watch favorite movies? We are seeking the same thing because there is something good achieved by returning–and that good is the deeper appreciation or possession of something beloved. Ideally, that is the kind of memory we seek.
Consider how children demand sometimes daily, sometimes immediately, to have the same book read to them. Read it again Daddy! Do they not want to possess the story that they love? Do they not want to return to some delightful place the book conjures up? Note as well how easily younger students (up to about age 12) memorize. Three times through a short poem or book and a young child can often recite large passages verbatim. This is the time to place treasure in their archive when it is so easily stored up.
Good teaching brings the good and wonderful before the eyes of the student. Once the student truly sees that good thing he will want to come back again and again until that good thing is so present within him that he can recall and see it–and enjoy it–in an instant. In other words, a student who is taught good things well will practically demand that he be re-taught. He wants the repetition that leads to permanent possession or mastery.
There are many ways to “seek learning again.” We need not re-teach the same ideas, facts, or lessons in exactly the same way. We can “re-view” an idea from a new vantage point; we can make new applications and connections. With each new search or view, new things should emerge or be illuminated–just as happens when we re-read poetry and literature or when we return to a favorite vacation spot.
A good teacher, with experience, learns to engage her students in regular review that delights students who instinctively want to return to the good things they have encountered, whether skills, facts, or ideas. She will learn to calibrate and blend review with new content and study, in a kind of spiral of study that deepens learning even as students climb upwards.
I trust that you see the relation between festina lente, multum non multa, and repetito mater memoriae. Students should proceed slowly (festina lente) mastering each good thing in a proper order; they should study a curated “best” selection of good things (multum non multa) passing over the superfluous; they should return to the study of those good things regularly (repetitio mater memoriae) until they become their permanent possession and treasure.
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