In the introduction of this subject, I did hint on the fact that cramming of lecture notes or textbook, which many of us have become used to, does not amount to real knowledge. In case you missed that part, here's the link:


Meanwhile, as I take you through these series, I'm assuming that you are willing to go the long haul and not expecting some quick fixes.


The focus of this post is to paint a vivid picture of what knowledge is not, by contrasting it with the recalling of memorized facts.

So we ask: how is knowledge different from recall?


Picture this: You are sitting at a dinning table, seriously starving. The hunger is becoming unbearable as you grow increasingly impatient, checking your watch for the umpteenth time. You secretly hope the food arrive on time. Just then, your delicious meal makes its grand entry into the dinning, to your utmost delight. Protocols are unduely observed. Jack robinson! And the farmished you is already gulping large chunk of food down a pitiful throat in quick succession without any chewing ritual. The swallowed food makes a thud on the floor of your stomach in batches like a dispenser. Your stomach couldnt handle the traffick. It quickly decide on something and a reverse operation set in immediately to get rid of the "gridlock". And so like a motion picture in a fastbackward mode, the food come running up from your stomach through to the mouth in a torrent of vomit, even before it had any chance of being digested.


Whew! that's a bit too melodramatic! Yes, but that is what memorization and recall look like!


Just like the vomitted food add no real nutritional value to the growth of your body, except perhaps the momentary quenching of your hunger, the recalling of undigested facts for the purpose of passing a test or an exam contributes nothing substantial to the intellectual development of the student. At best, it may aid the student to obtain high scores and grades thereby give him/her a fleeting illusion of brilliance and smartness, or even genius. The student may bask in the euphoria while it lasts. Unfortunately, that's all there is to it in the long run. The market place of life will put such student where s/he really belong eventually. It's only a matter of time.


Admittedly, in fairness to crammers(most of us are), memorizing data is not wrong in itself. It has its place and usefulness in the learning process , eventhough it's a lower-order cognitive function. We are able to remember names of people and places, list of items, catalogue of things, lines of music or verse of poetry simply because we've perfected the art of employing mnemonic tools to store data into our memory for subsequent recall.


However, let's call things their right names. Recalling memorized data is simply not knowledge.


Now, picture the dinning table scene again, only this time table manners and protocol are duely observed. You eat the meal in a well-cultured manner inspite of the hunger, slowly chewing away in order to allow the appropriate enzymes act on it. And slowly, each mouthful makes its way down the stomach with no hassle. And as they arrive there, the stomach does its job of digestion, releasing nutrients for assimiliation into the bloodstream for onward transportation to appropriate parts of the body. This way, energy is released, dead cells are replaced and the body is revitalized.


This is knowledge in pictures. True knowledge results in the cultivation of the intellect, furnishing it with a robust capacity to be useful to the owner and to solve complex problems in society.


Meanwhile, the above illustration is intended to aid your imagination to appreciate what knowledge is not. Yet, this is only but a sketch.


Next, I shall be turning my attention to the concept of knowledge itself, in order to explore what it really is, in more relatable fashion and how it bears upon mastering academic subjects.