Sometime around fifth grade, the teacher energetically rolled out a huge map of the United States.  "By the end of this unit," he began (I didn't even know what a unit was) "you will know the capital of every one of these states."  Students gasped in shock.  "The crazy part is that it's going to be fun."  He was right . . . sort of.  For many students it was fun.  We played all kinds of memorization games and made our own acronym.  I got in trouble for making some absurdly long sentence about the Virgin Mary wanting a new York peppermint patty. By the end of the unit, I had that nagging sense that it did not matter.  Sure, we had played games, but couldn't we have played games with information that was a little more exciting? 

I mention this because teachers in the staff lounge were lamenting the fact that students did not know their capitals.  "What are elementary teachers doing?"  one asked.  Another quipped, "They spend too much time doing circle time."  I kept my mouth shut at first.  "The problem isn't the teachers.  It's that this generation of students is so relient on technology that they cannot memorize things.  It's like the brain is different." 

So, flash foward to the school dance.  When "crank that Superman" comes on, it looks like a choreographed music video.  In unison and in groups, they all dance.  It seems to me that student had memorized the dance moves just fine.  A minute later, I hear two girls singing along with "suicidal," an annoying hip hop song with a tinge of a Buddy Holly melody.  As I sell candy with a group of students, a few of them correct me when I incorrectly quote a line from Dodge Ball.  This begins a scene where they quote the movie back and forth verbatim.

Why don't kids remember the state capital?  Probably for the same reason I can never remember the capital of New York. It's because it is not important.  Unless I live in Nevada, chances are I will never need to go to Carson City.  If I'm in California, I will probably never stop by Sacramento.  True, it's important when you move somewhere to find out, but I really could care less about Montana's capital.  I know it's probably smaller than the tenth largest city in Arizona.

The problem isn't with memorizing, but with whether it's meaningful.  Times tables are meaningful.  I use the information and know it's important.  State capitals was a waste of time - albeit a quasi-fun waste of time.

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