What are references for?

Many years ago, when I was a 7^th grader my math teacher said something that affected my views on learning. He said that the amount of information people collect is growing so fast that he believed his generation was the last generation that had individuals of encyclopedic knowledge. He predicted that people would need to become more narrow specialists in the areas of their choices. He was the teacher who told us that we should not try to remember some general data which is recorded in the reference books and is easily available in the libraries.

Do not memorize, understand and move on - that was my mantra for years. This is why I can watch people playing Jeopardy, but I will never encourage anybody to play it. I will never understand why you would need to remember so much information that can be easily found if needed.

There is another aspect to this thought. More and more discoveries are made on the borders of different fields of knowledge. For example, new methods of treating diseases are found on the border between Biology and Physics. To create a simulation on the computer the programmer must understand the science behind the simulation. So we can’t really become narrow specialists. There is a contradiction :) We do need to be a little educated in more than one area.

I was happy to see old RCTs (tests required for High School Diploma in NYS) gone and exchanged by Regents Exams (New tests) because the new tests require less memorization and more thinking on the spot. In Math instead of calculations students have to solve problems. In Science instead of checking the tricky vocabulary words the students are asked how they would think in different situations, same in History, and even in English they have to write what they think about what they've read.

So I have positive view on the changes in education. I am also happy to see how many talented and devoted people work in this field, how many new ideas are there. Plus we have computers, the tool of the future, in the hands of our students.