Memorization

Just came upon this article today, in my usual waiting-for-my-brain-to-wake-up rounds of sites likely to provide short articles that I will find moderately interesting: http://www.salon.com/2012/06/13/make_kids_memorize_poetry/
It starts off by reporting the negative reaction of progressives to a new proposal by Michael Gove, Britain's Education Secretary, to have schoolkids memorize poetry. I can sort of understand why people would be against it -- if one believes it's a step in turning all education into rote memorization, then it might seem really dangerous and creativity-killing. The article goes on to mention memory-building benefits to memorizing poetry. It also interviews a progressive who is home-schooling her kids with poetry memorization as part of the program, who says her kids seem to enjoy it. I can certainly believe that. Hanging out with my two young nephews (currently 4 and 5) is that the more they hear something the better they like it. Up to a point, of course, eventually the thing becomes to simple for them and they move on. But that comes waaay later than the memorization point. At two and a half, my nephew could sit at the dinner table and recite all of Where the Wild Things Are (with maybe a little help from my brother -- my brother now knows at least forty different kids' books entirely by heart, and can do scene-by-scene recounting of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, including many of the lines). All of this is to say, I would expect that with the right poems and the right playful attitude, a great many kids (though not all) would enjoy memorizing poetry.
Last summer I started memorizing The Waste Land. I haven't looked at it much recently. I have about 240 lines down, which is a bit more than halfway. I keep meaning to get back to it but doing a PhD and living in two countries and all that other not-fun everyday stuff has gotten in the way a bit, but also I guess just that I'm nt good at being consistent at anything, even if I enjoy doing it. Other than watching television -- I've been incredibly consistent at devoting time to that, which I am currently trying (again) to change. The thing I felt about memorizing, though, was that it brought so much more to the language. I've recently started to think that poetry reading is harder for people whose thinking style tends towards quickness -- it takes an effort for me to slow my mind down enough to appreciate the words individually, which is where poetry comes to life. I can do it, and then it's amazing, but I have to consciously remind myself to. I have a sense that for other people that comes more naturally (I would like to know if this is true; maybe they simply have better training? Maybe it's some other difference entirely? I am also of an analytical bent, which can get in the way of some activities).  But memorizing illuminates the words in a way that no slowness or concentration of reading could. I feel the connections between lines that are far from each other, and not just the obvious ones where the line is being repeated with a twist, but subtler things. Not that it's taking me to any great intellectual level, but it's incredibly enjoyable to see and feel the poem in that way. I can also imagine never getting tired of those words, which is great. It gives me something to do on walks on when standing in line. I guess the trouble is, when a huge institution brings it into its curriculum, it's likely to fuck it up and make it seem like an awful irrelevant chore. The experience of one intellectual and free-thinking mum with her two kids is likely to be quite different than that of a bunch of harassed, underpaid and possibly not entirely poetry-loving teachers with their sea of students.