Oak Ridge-based intensive training produces national Memory Master

 

On March 29, 8-year old Colby Salzman, son of Lee Salzman and Oak Ridge High School 1985 graduate Andrea (Poteat) Salzman, wrapped up 24 weeks of intensive memorization efforts by earning his Memory Master award. He subsequently ate a fruit snack and went out to play with his friends.

“Memory Master” is an honor bestowed to students who have mastered all the memory work learned through the Classical Conversations (CC) classical homeschooling curriculum. Classical Conversations defines “mastery” as the storing of information to long-term memory, which means the students do not cram for a single test and then move on; instead they learn to use each fact as a hook for more facts.

Colby puts it more simply, “When I hear 1789, I can’t help it. I think about aristocrats’ heads being chopped off by the guillotine in France.”

During the school year, students (age 4-12) meet weekly at Calvary Baptist Church in Oak Ridge and work together to learn facts through song, movement, experimentation, drawing, and laughter, a press release said.

At the end of the year, students who wish to obtain their Memory Masters must recite all 24 weeks of information on four different occasions to four different people. Director Rebecca Peterson explained how it almost all came to a crashing halt because of one error out of 500.

“When I asked him to calculate the cubes, he began to skip count his squares (up through 15 x 15) instead. My heart stopped. I thought I was going to have to fail him after a year of hard work. But he stopped, looked up and said ‘wait, that’s not right’ and then corrected himself. This is exactly what we want in a Memory Master.”

Classical Training in Oak Ridge

Parents who are interested in the Oak Ridge chapter of Classical Conversations can find out more at www.facebook.com/ClassicalConversationsofOakRidge or by emailing Director Rebecca Peterson at [email protected].

Homeschooling 101

Parents considering homeschooling their children during the 2017-18 school year can attend an informational meeting on Thursday, April 27, from 6:45-8:45 p.m. at Pizza Inn at 1501 Oak Ridge Turnpike in Oak Ridge.

This “Homeschooling 101” event is sponsored by the Smoky Mountain chapter of the Tennessee Home Education Association. You can learn more at www.smhea.org or https://www.facebook.com/events/1431863206885613/.

This press release and photos were submitted by Andrea Salzman.