Some may think that memorization as a teaching tool is old-fashioned, but our Religious Education program encourages memorization. Our late Holy Father, John Paul II the Great, had the following to say on the subject:
“A certain memorization of the words of Jesus, of important Bible passages, of the Ten Commandments, of the formulas of profession of the faith, of the liturgical texts, of the essential prayers, of key doctrinal ideas, etc., far from being opposed to the dignity of young Christians, or constituting an obstacle to personal dialogue with the Lord, is a real need, the Synod Fathers forcefully recalled. We must be realists. The blossoms, if we way call them that, of faith and piety do not grow in the desert place of a memory-less catechesis. What is essential is that the texts that are memorized must at the same time be taken in and gradually understood in depth, in order to become a source of Christian life on the personal level and the community level.” CATECHESI TRADENDAE (On Catechesis In Our Time) John Paul II - Apostolic Exhortation of His Holiness to the Episcopate, the Clergy and the Faithful of the Entire Catholic Church given on 16 October 1979.
So parents, encourage your children to memorize their prayers, the Mass responses, the Ten Commandments, the Beatitudes etc. This will become a well spring from which they can draw throughout their Christian life. Expressing thoughts and ideas succinctly and accurately in a memorable form, allows for ease of memorization and better understanding of a topic. In the early stages of education, memorization should be utilized more frequently since children first need language to communicate meaning. In Theology, semantics are very important, for Christians have died for their faith and schisms have occurred because of word use (e.g., the Filioque in the Nicene Creed). Such formulas also provide a uniform method of speaking among the faith.