Joshua Gibbs’ Something They Will Not Forget is a book not to forget. This small volume wrestles with that age-old dragon of every teacher: how do I ensure my students remember the material? Gibbs is not content with the simpler question of how to ensure students remember for long enough to score well on a test; he wrestles with the much more fundamental issue of retention beyond the test, reminding us “what is not retained is not learned” (5). In fact, Gibbs dedicates the entire first chapter to really unpacking the urgency and seriousness of this issue.
Ultimately, Gibbs proposes that ceremony is the solution (23). He reminds the reader that we remember and retain even such mundane things as phone numbers, passwords, addresses and song lyrics through frequent and habitual use. “To do a thing every day, at the same time, and according to the same customs is a little victory against time, which naturally destroys the body and corrupts the memory. Ceremonies pinch disparate times together and allow a man to know himself not as a series of accidents, not as a chaos of selves, but as a singular person who is uniquely responsible for his own actions (28).” In other words, ceremony humanizes us and our students.
Concretely, the ceremony that Gibbs introduced to his high school literature class and that he proposes to us is the medieval concept of a catechism: a question and answer dialogue daily recited aloud together that contains the essential thought of a group of people about important human questions. This word, which means “oral instruction” survives today in the idea of a religious catechism, such as the Baltimore Catechism. As applied to a class, the catechism refers to a series of questions and answers that are centered around the essential concepts and perennial truths of the class. The answers to the questions are drawn from the major works covered in the class, and are recited together at the beginning of each class. This catechism is not memorized intentionally, though by the end of the year students have it memorized by virtue of the regular exposure and communal recitation.
Here is an excerpt from a sample he provides:
“What is temptation and what is virtue?
I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself. I will keep the law given by God; sanctioned by man. I will hold to the principles received by me when I was sane, and not mad as I am now. Laws and principles are not for the times when there Is no temptation: they are for such moments as this, when body and soul rise in mutiny against their rigour; stringent are they;
Inviolate they shall be. If at my individual convenience I might break them, what would be their worth? They have a worth —so I have always believed; and if 1 cannot believe it now, it is because I am insane-quite insane: with my veins running fire, and my heart beating faster than I can count its throbs, Preconceived opinions, foregone determinations, are all I have at this hour to stand by: there I plant my foot. (from Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte)” (53).
Having proposed the practice of class catechisms, Gibbs spends an entire chapter exploring the possibilities such a practice offers our assessments. Gibbs’ assessments focus on the student demonstrating a deep understanding of the ideas in the texts of the catechism by applying the universal truths found in those texts to a case study written by the teacher. “While anyone is free to give such tests whether or not they use a catechism, these tests fulfill the promises inherent in the daily recitation of canonical texts. The respect paid to the masters in the catechism allows the catechized to speak, but only within limits set by the masters. The sheer objectivity of the catechism is balanced with the subjectivity of tests, and so every class is both physical and spiritual, fact and opinion, tangible and unapproachable” (77).
The book is eminently practical: Gibbs offers a convincing and thorough apologia for a class catechism, together with instructions on how to develop your own, several sample catecheses and an anthology of sample tests. In fact, each chapter is dedicated to one of these topics. The final chapter is of particular note, as Gibbs considers the power of integration among math, science, and the humanities that the catechism offers. “Math would not be one kind of learning, and history another. Rather, students would receive daily confirmation that all subjects are human traditions, human endeavors, subject to human passions, and capable of divinity-as is appropriate to the work of God’s image” (117). While Gibbs’ appreciation of the integrative potential of the catechism is laudable here, he offers a fairly weak explanation. While it is true that all subjects are human subjects, no attention is given to the intrinsic unity of the Truth. Combined with the fact that this chapter is a small fraction of the length of the others, the book ends on a weak note.
But there are beautiful insights into the vocation of the teacher along the way: “If the teacher wants students to speak Lincoln’s words outside the classroom, they must speak Lincoln’s words inside the classroom.” (27) Or “The good classroom is an icon of the world, not an oasis from the world” (27). Or “…Students do not learn what the teacher tests on, they learn what he lavishes his minutes and hours on. (27)
While the book contains much to offer every teacher, I found that there was a certain unevenness to the work. The examples he offers come from a narrow range of subject and grade level that somewhat obscures the wider potential this practice has for a variety of ages and classes. Additionally, while the first few chapters contain refined and polished prose, the last contain such minute treatment of Gibbs’ particular classroom that the forest risks being lost through the trees.
Nevertheless, this book is very much worth your time: Gibbs challenges us to consider why our students don’t retain what they learn. He offers a rich meditation on the purpose of school and the vocation of the teacher and student. He offers a practical method of instruction and assessment that profoundly aligns with the noble vocation of the student. This book offers much food for thought and practical wisdom that will be sure to be helpful to any teacher.
Something They Will Not Forget: a Handbook for Classical Teachers
By Joshua Gibbs
Concord, NC: CiRCE Institute, 2019
117 pages. Paperback. $11.99.
Currently out of stock. Digital copies available.