The Memorization Trap

Odds are, a day before the start of classes, you’ll find a horde of freshmen enveloping either Book Culture, the Columbia Bookstore, or the library, scrambling to find copies of The Iliad, Aeneid, and Symposium in time for their first class of Literature Humanities (LitHum). In just a few short weeks, you’ll find those same freshmen in Carman floor lounges, Ferris, or Uris bemoaning the hundreds of pages they were assigned to read of those very same books. But after the obligatory workload complaints, you’ll also hear intense discussion, debate, and disagreement on the fabric of these texts—the kind of authentic engagement that isn’t always rewarded by the grading structure.

This intellectual spirit, as we’re routinely reminded, is the principal goal of Columbia’s Core Curriculum. The euphemism of teaching students not what to think but how to think has indeed become cliché, yet this pedagogical philosophy undoubtedly remains at the heart of the Core. It is meant not just as another set of requirements to fulfill but rather viewed as Columbia’s signature academic program and primary selling point, emblematic of the school’s approach to education as a whole.

While this vision is admirable, for many students, it is simply not the reality. Assessment methods used in many Core classes prioritize memorization and regurgitation of facts over intellectual inquiry, creating a disconnect between the Core’s stated goals and the students’ quotidian experience.