The Act of Studying Response
Katherine Sun
Ritchie
English 11 H
Sept 10, 2012
The Act of Studying
Anybody that has been a student has studied before, and knows that studying is the process of learning. Everyone has a different way of viewing the act of studying; Freire’s view being very complicated and overthought. Freire put too much emphasis on emotions and sentiments in the act of studying. Studying is but a simple process that consists of absorbing and retaining knowledge and should be measured with quality instead of quantity.
Freire claims that studying should not be only to ‘memorize’, and while technically studying does consist mostly of memorizing, the word does not fit the act of studying well. A better word that should be used to describe studying is ‘absorbing’. Purely memorizing things is not an act of studying, because it will not result in any retention of the knowledge that was memorized. If no knowledge is retained, then what was the point of memorizing that information? It must have been relevant or important because it was being studied, so it’s safe to assume that retaining the information would be the ideal situation. Trying to memorize something is a tedious process already, retaining that information is tedious on whole other level. When humans memorize things, it goes to one’s short-term memory first. Only after numerous repetitions can we actually retain the knowledge. Many teachers have preached to me that students should learn like sponges absorb. Once they absorb the water, it stays inside them. We can achieve this sponge-like study result if we study repetitively. Studying should be this tedious process of repetitive work, with the final goal in mind to be retaining the knowledge as one’s own and being able to use it and apply it into one’s own life.
Studying is not ‘reinventing, re-creating, [and] rewriting’ someone else’s work (Freire 1). Studying is the step before reinventing or re-creating others’ work. Studying allows one to have the basis and
Ritchie
English 11 H
Sept 10, 2012
The Act of Studying
Anybody that has been a student has studied before, and knows that studying is the process of learning. Everyone has a different way of viewing the act of studying; Freire’s view being very complicated and overthought. Freire put too much emphasis on emotions and sentiments in the act of studying. Studying is but a simple process that consists of absorbing and retaining knowledge and should be measured with quality instead of quantity.
Freire claims that studying should not be only to ‘memorize’, and while technically studying does consist mostly of memorizing, the word does not fit the act of studying well. A better word that should be used to describe studying is ‘absorbing’. Purely memorizing things is not an act of studying, because it will not result in any retention of the knowledge that was memorized. If no knowledge is retained, then what was the point of memorizing that information? It must have been relevant or important because it was being studied, so it’s safe to assume that retaining the information would be the ideal situation. Trying to memorize something is a tedious process already, retaining that information is tedious on whole other level. When humans memorize things, it goes to one’s short-term memory first. Only after numerous repetitions can we actually retain the knowledge. Many teachers have preached to me that students should learn like sponges absorb. Once they absorb the water, it stays inside them. We can achieve this sponge-like study result if we study repetitively. Studying should be this tedious process of repetitive work, with the final goal in mind to be retaining the knowledge as one’s own and being able to use it and apply it into one’s own life.
Studying is not ‘reinventing, re-creating, [and] rewriting’ someone else’s work (Freire 1). Studying is the step before reinventing or re-creating others’ work. Studying allows one to have the basis and