Do kids these days...

... still have to memorize things like the Declaration of Independence, Preamble to the Constitution, Gettysburg Address, MLK's 'I Have a Dream' speech, etc. in school? We had to do that and I still remember every word decades later. What did you have to memorize?

 

Is memorization a thing of the past or do they still do it?

LOL...I had to memorize long, complicated prayers with a bunch of Latin thrown in.  I don't remember having to learn the Declaration of Independence or the others because I couldn't recite them now.  Went to a Catholic school... prayers took precedence!

My husband and I are both 44 and he had to memorize the Preamble and other things. I remember having a test on the preamble but I couldn't recite it today. Not a big history buff back then. More now. I remember the planets in order and some poems from English classes. I was an English major so more my liking. My hubby was a political science major so he knows all the history stuff. Our kids go to private school and I can almost guarantee they will have to learn this stuff. We'll make a good pair when our kids get older and learning this stuff! LOL

Had to memorize the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights for my citizenship test,

My older kids had to memorize all that.  My youngest is currently struggling with memorizing multiplication charts.

 

As a kid, School house Rock was the only way I remembered any of that.

Both of my older kids are in high school. They've had to memorize the Declaration Of Independence,but not the others you mentioned.

 

I had to memorize the Declaration Of Independence,and The Gettysburg Address.

sstetzel:

My youngest is currently struggling with memorizing multiplication charts.

[:'(] I I still struggle with those....TG for the invention of the calculator...and TG a passing Math grade was not  requirement for American Citizenship!  Now spelling...well I can handle myself in three languages...add a half to that.

BlueDenim_MI:

LOL...I had to memorize long, complicated prayers with a bunch of Latin thrown in. 

 

Ah, I remember it well. My nuns must have been sadists, because they sure didn't stop at prayers or Catechism questions & answers. Poems, too. I'm sure they thought it built character or something...

I had to learn the Gettysburg Address, though I couldn't tell you much of it now. In the 8th grade I had to learn every county in the state of GA (there are 158 of them!), where they were on a map, and the county seat! I can recall a LOT of those!

sstetzel:

As a kid, School house Rock was the only way I remembered any of that.

I loved School House Rock!

"Oh, I'm just a bill!  A silly old bill and I'm sittin' here on Capitol Hill"  I was singing that to my dd the other day.   She just looked at me and asked what I was singing.  I told her and she said well that sounds lame.  I told her it wasn't lame it was very cool!  lol!  I don't remember having to memorize any of those things.  We studied them but didn't have to memorize them.

Oh great Jan, now I can sing that all night! LOL

I'm pretty good at memorization ( I still remember the jingle from the dental assoc. on the back of a Crest toothpaste box) but I was having a rather tough time with the amendments....that is until a friend of mine taught me word association. 

 

I can still see her saying:  the 2nd amendment was a right to keep & bear arms...and she showed me her two arms! LOL

 

 

I''m so old that when I learned The Pledge of Allegiance, "under God" wasn't in it yet!   LOL

oldgirl06:

I''m so old that when I learned The Pledge of Allegiance, "under God" wasn't in it yet!   LOL

 

Me too.  I still have to think to remember it.

 

BarefootCrone:

I had to learn the Gettysburg Address, though I couldn't tell you much of it now. In the 8th grade I had to learn every county in the state of GA (there are 158 of them!), where they were on a map, and the county seat! I can recall a LOT of those!

 

I thought 82 was bad enough--Mississippi