Zimmerman Says American Education Too Often Relies on Rote Learning

Writing in the International Herald Tribune, Jonathan Zimmerman, professor of education and history, notes that in Ghana, where he is currently teaching, rote memorization dominates the educational system.

Although there has been a critique of rote learning in the U.S., Zimmerman claims that, in the U.S., crowded college-level courses in subjects such as history all too often demand their students to memorize and regurgitate, rather than to analyze, facts.

"Even as we assail other people's education," he writes, "we might pause to examine our own. Instruction in America is not as poor as Ghana, that's for sure. But it's not nearly as rich as it should be either."

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