Not long ago, I wrote about the importance of memory in education. I said that we can learn important truths from the Greek myth of Mnemosyne, the goddess of memory, giving birth to the nine Muses, goddesses of the arts and sciences. This myth shows that memory is the mother of learning, not only on the individual level but also on the societal level.
In order to grow and thrive, we must remember as a society our cultural heritage, and a true education is, in large part, becoming familiar with and storing within us “the best that has been thought and said,” in Matthew Arnold’s famous phrase. Children and adults alike should be shaped by what has gone before them, which requires bringing it into their memories.
