Interesting. I recall doing a heck of a lot of rote memorization when I was in public school in the 60's and 70's. In fact a large part of my education involved learning to read, write, and spell through memorization. How do they do that now?
I believe the current method of teaching reading, writing and spelling focuses mostly on getting the message across to kids that they are really good at reading, writing and spelling and then explaining how to put a condom on a banana.
The assignment that I gave that got the most parental complaints (the only reason that my principal ever took any stands) was memorizing pi to as many places as the students could. I was told it was unreasonable to expect them to memorize a number that went on forever. When I reminded him that they only memorized what they could within a week's time, not the entire infinite sequence, he said that there was no reason to memorize pi since it is well-documented in books. When I told him that the point of the lesson was learning mnemonic devices, as well as measuring and improving memory capacity, he said that it was not part of my curriculum. When I reminded him that the ISTEP state standardized tests (our apparent Holy Grail from the state's viewpoint) included a memorization section, and it allowed them only 20 minutes to memorize a list of 25 nonsense words and definitions ("a grelb is a hammer"), he got tired of discussing it, and simply reminded me that I was not allowed to give that lesson. I then surprised myself and asked the consequences if I didn't. He said I would be written up and the record put it my file. I said (as politely as I could, to lessen the confrontational nature that was becoming apparent to the others in attendance) that if that were the case, then the lesson would be worth it to me. He, of course, upped the ante to a possible suspension for insubordination.
*sigh*
I had given that lesson for 3 years before it came up, and every year had at least one child going over 200 decimal places, and only 4 kids (total, out of 400-ish) ever attained less than 100.
The great part was when, a few weeks later, some man won $100,000 on a TV program for memorizing pi to 100 decimal places. All of a sudden, my kids felt cheated for not being allowed to do the lesson. Others thought I was being unfair since I had to substitute much more menial worksheets for a week, rather than the fun lessons I had prepared.
As for my current school (you're surprised I left?!?), there has obviously been some wretched breakdown in communication between the 3rd-5th grade math teachers, because I would be willing to bet that 75% of my kids do not know the 12x12 multiplication tables by heart. I have been including it in as many lessons and quizzes as possible, but they simply use fast addition to fill in the chart (add 4 to every subsequent number in the 4x column, etc), rather than actually memorizing the products. The parents and the administrations simply aren't interested in hearing the kids whine about heavy intellectual labor anymore. It's really sad.
Good luck, homeschoolers. You truly are doing the right thing for your children. Never let the talking heads guilt you into doubting it. As your ranks grow, I will get more hopeful for the public school system. The ONLY way the NEA and the educrats will start making meaninful changes will be after they start realizing that they are losing numbers, money, and power. Trust me, I've been to board meetings, faculty meetings, and national conventions where dissenters like myself are given a fair chance to be heard... just before they forge ahead with their own incredibly stupid plans anyway. You home-schoolers are the only hope, not only for your own kids, but for those who would actually like to see the public systems wake up and start focusing on fixing what they've broken in education.