Word: rote
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...Mind. Much of the discussion concerned the basic question of what role religion should play in tax-supported schools. Nobody was entirely satisfied with religious "lessons" by secular teachers. Rabbi Gordis decried handing over the work of church and home to public schools, which might develop a "religion-by-rote." Agnostic Lekachman agreed: "I consider religion to be much too important in human history to see it reduced to a patriotic exercise in the classroom...
...other hand, Robert G. McCloskey, professor of Government, stressed the need for making incoming "rote scholars" more adventurous. He had "mild reservations" however, about substituting seminars or tutorials for regular courses. These regular courses "may be just what the doctor ordered for Freshmen," he said...
...bravos. Few in the audience realized that MacNeil was there for merely a one-shot appearance, was not given a rehearsal with the cast or orchestra. And few but La Scala's sharpest critical ears detected that MacNeil speaks no Italian, has to learn his roles by rote. Said MacNeil modestly: "There isn't much acting required; it's a kind of stand-there-and-bellow opera...
Hard-Working Parrots. But the flaws in the Russian system are huge. Dogma is injected into almost all subjects. Teachers may be scholars, but they are expected to follow rigid syllabuses, have far less freedom to interpret their subjects than U.S. instructors. Rote learning, abhorred by some U.S. educators, is carried to extremes. Class discussion, perhaps overemphasized in the U.S., is absent in Russia, and students are not encouraged to think beyond lines laid down by teachers. Cramming for exams swallows a large proportion of the students' time, and since questions are drawn by lot from lists circulated weeks...
...traditionalists, any use of the word "growth" or "adjustment" is enough to induce rage, no matter what the context or meaning. Conversely, for many progressives the suggestion that knowledge is best organized into "subjects," or that the mind can profit from "discipline," raises such a repellent image of rote learning and tedious pedantry that they will hear no more of the matter...