I knew the educational system was becoming unglued decades ago when they said memorization was unimportant. Actually, memorization of basic math, English, history, and other subjects is probably the single most important skill you can teach any elementary student. Teaching kids self-esteem or how to think “critically” is almost worthless.
It’s important for students who attend schools that offer a classical education — public, private, and religious.
They even gave us 80s High School kids a term to mock: ‘rote memorization’.