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. [Read more…]