“Memorization is the Mother of Students”.
I took that idea and imposed it on my junior high history students requiring them to memorize and recite the preamble to the Declaration of Independence starting at the beginning and ending with “...deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.” Their reaction first was like mine; such a thing is impossible. But nearly all of them succeeded. Best part was that some kids who didn’t usually do well, ended up getting a rare (for them) A for the achievement. Never had a parent complaint about the assignment.
I made my grandkids write out the Declaration of Independence about 22 years ago. Not sure it helped...ones a flaming liberal to this day...at age 32 now..the others are similarly brainwashed
My father (born in 1924) had a remarkable memory, even by the standards of bygone days. He would memorize poetry as a break from his medical studies, and could recite Tennyson or Longfellow by the hour (which his children found boring to the point of coma). Once, while we were driving to a rodeo on July 4th, he recited the entire Declaration of Independence, and I suspect he could have recited the entire Constitution as well.
I also believe that he never forgot the name or face of anyone he had ever met.
I always had an easy time memorizing Shakespeare if it was one of the verse sections. Some theorize that iambic pentameter was popular among the Elizabethan playwrights because it was easy for the actors to memorize. It makes a pattern in which every line (more or less) reads like da-da, da-da, da-da, da-da, da-da. I once acted in a Shakespeare play in which my part was written partly in verse, partly in prose. I quickly memorized the verse portions, but the prose sections were much tougher.