The Book of Learning and Forgetting: Book Review

The Book of Learning and Forgetting by Frank Smith

Charles Swift recommended I read this book, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It reminded me of the writings of Eleanor Duckworth. If I were forced to summarize the book in a few sentences I would say that Dr. Smith’s view of learning is very similar to that articulated by Lave and Wenger of forming communities of practice. Smith states that basically you learn by the company you keep. It is by being with people who do certain things, and participating with them that you learn to do those things. As a case in point, my brother-in-law is in dental school. About 80% of his school time is spent in a dentist office where he works on people’s teeth, under the watchful care of a licensed dentist. He is learning by participating in the activity and associating with others who do it.

Smith uses a “club” metaphor for this—stating that a good way to think about learning is to join a club. It’s voluntary, you’re with other people who share the same interest, and you work together. A less-effective way to learn Chinese—copy characters and use brute memorization force. More effective—join a Chinese club with native speakers and practice speaking with them.

Smith points out that people learn an enormous amount of information without formal schooling. One of his major points is language acquisition. Third grade children learn on average 3,500 words per year just from naturally living life. That would be like learning ten new vocabulary words per day—but everybody knows how easily vocabulary words are forgotten. Because these children aren’t forcing themselves to memorize these new words they are likely more easily remembered.

Smith states that learning that is hard, intentional, based on rewards or punishments, assured by testing, etc. is learning that will soon be forgotten and is not, in the classical sense, true learning.

If you want to teach your children to read, read to them. Don’t worry that you are crippling them by reading for them, as soon as they are able they will start reading, because kids want to do things for themselves. Don’t worry if your kids like to read the same books over and over again, or if they are reading books that are “too easy.” This is part of joining and feeling a part of “the literacy club.”

Smiths rips into researchers such as Ebbinghaus stating that our whole theory of learning is based on memorizing (and forgetting) nonsense syllables, and creating learning systems that work well for the military, but not for creating true learning. Behaviorism and testing also get the cold shoulder.

Sadly, I felt that Smith was describing some of my tests when he said, “Memorization is emphasized, the inevitable forgetting is ignored, and no attention at all is paid to what students actually and permanently learn about themselves and education” (65).

The challenge I grapple with at the end of the book is, if I throw out my tests, how can I realistically tell what students are learning. Smith states that if students are engaged in activities and don’t seem bored or confused that they are learning. But how can this be realistically determined? I truly want my students to join a “club” so to speak as they participate in my class and become in their own ways scholars of the Book of Mormon with an ability to think and write about it. I want them to be able to find new insights from the text and effectively share those with others. But how to measure it?