Help Your Brain to Be Agile, Not Fragile: Help Your Brain to Be Agile, Not Fragile

Once again, The Museum of Teaching and Learning invites you to join in a celebration of memorization. MOTAL’s Fourth Annual By Heart Day is a few days away—it will officially take place on August 21st. However, why not start to challenge your memory today? People say “by heart” because, as with so many aspects of our American culture, it started with the ancient Greeks who believed the heart (not the brain) was the seat of learning, emotion, and memory.


Please enjoy the many benefits that come from reciting (or learning anew) things that are significant to you. Natalie Wexler, an education and cognition specialist who examined the subject of memorization in a Forbes article (2019), emphasized that information securely held within people’s minds can serve to bind further learning and decision making. Some people (alas, even some educators) dismiss memorization as mere recall or simply “rote.” However, those who analyze complex thinking vouch that having knowledge embedded in memory is a foundation for critical thinking.


This year, MOTAL would like to emphasize the importance of knowing certain NUMBERS and DESCRIPTIONS for safety and navigating daily life. Here are some suggestions:


Important for youngest children:
1) Parents’ phone numbers
2) Home address
3) Names of parents—not just Mom or Dad.
4) How to spell your name(s).


Older children:
1) Know the same things expected of young children.
2) Start memorizing math facts with small numbers, ever-increasing the speed and amounts. Addition and subtraction.
3) Then multiplication and division. (Note: Let’s fix the situation in which where as many as 40% of assessed ninth graders in a large urban district did NOT know their times tables by heart.)
4) Know names and locations of the 50 states; they’re basic to learning about about the history and geography of the United States.


Teens and Adults:
1) Car license number
2) Auto make and color
3) Social Security number.
4) Complete phone numbers of responsible family members 4) Name and phone number of an emergency contact person
5) Blood type
6) Birthdays and Anniversaries of loved ones.


Readers can find tips to help memory across many sites on the internet, but these tips appear to dominate.

1. The person doing the memorizing must care about the content
2. Must find a way to practice it regularly and then intermittently (write it down, use flash cards, sing songs)
3. Must devise an appropriate reward for accomplishment. Research confirms that such little gifts can be mere tokens (yes, even high school kids declare their enjoyment of stickers), perhaps a snack, or a pat on the back.
4. Also, thanks to AARP, a special note for senior citizens: Two of the best tools to help your memory are a pencil and a piece of paper.

In addition, a handy site to help with remembering numbers, codes, and passwords can be found here at: 7 Easy Tricks to Remember Numbers, Codes, Passwords

Note: What is something YOU can remember by heart? MOTAL would
love to know and share what readers have to say. Just REPLY
to this email blast to tell about experiences with memorizing.
Finally, for those who prefer to embrace something new to commit to memory, you will find many suggestions in last year’s Heart Day article. Just click on this link.

Time to Nourish Your Memory

Please have a great day on the 21st! Enjoy your By Heart journey!

Submitted by Greta Nagel, PhD
MOTAL President and CEO