Thank God! I thought I was about to freak out. LOL
I memorized them back in second grade, 50 years. ago. I memorized the European capitals as well, but much has changed since then and I haven’t bothered to memorize the capitals of countries that reappeared after the breakup of the Eastern Bloc.
I used to know all the states and their capitals. Yesterday I was looking at a blank map of the US and blanked myself. There was a rectangle under Montana that I couldn’t identify. Went crazy trying to name all the western states, which I thought I did. But that rectangle remained, taunting me. Had to go to a list of states. Oh sure, then it was obvious. Laugh, you youngsters.
I got a copy of the World Almanac (or, occasionally, a Reader’s Digest or New York Times counterpart) annually at Christmas starting when I was in elementary school, and read the list of presidents enough to memorize the chronological order. Even earlier, I had a United States map puzzle, which featured an alphabetical list of the states, each state followed by its capital. So my “trick” was brute memorization which has stuck to this day, with the new chief executives added as needed. Since I was born the year Hawaii was admitted to the union, the list of states hasn’t changed.
There are just about as many States of the Union as there are POTUSes, but I can do the states backwards and forwards, half-asleep, with a map or without, and very little effort. But POTUSes always take some effort and some time.
I can do the US presidents but very few VP’s. I can also do the kings and queens of England, from 1066 to the present.
I can do all the state in alphabetical order, thanks to a stupid song I had to learn in junior high chorus class.
My mom could do the presidents, but to me her most impressive feat of memory was being able to recite, in it’s entirety, Paul Revere’s Ride. I always made sure I visited her on April 18th, when she would do it for me. I can get about 40% of the way.
I’m surprised at how many Americans feel that “knowing all the presidents in order” is important to knowing American history. Memorizing presidents in order is not American history; it’s just memorizing a list. History is the study of cause and effect in the past, so we can avoid (or embrace) past challenges as we move forward. Yes, those presidents’ policies and their implementation can teach us history, but knowing that Lincoln succeeded Buchanan who succeeded Pierce doesn’t help, without knowing exactly why Lincoln succeeded Buchanan who succeeded Pierce. That’s the study of history.
I’m reminded of a Canadian message board I belong to. We have a regular American poster, who is pretty knowledgeable in Canadian history, and whose comments are always welcome, but who occasionally tries to establish his “Canadian cred” by telling us how he can recite all Prime Ministers from John A. Macdonald onward. We aren’t impressed; we never had to do the same (as Americans seem to do with their presidents), and we know that our history is more than the order of Prime Ministers. They may have affected our history, but knowing them in order is not all there is to our history.
Just personally, I don’t feel this way at all. It’s a starting point for understanding U.S. history, but hardly an endpoint.
My students (in college, mind you) mostly didn’t know the Civil War and the Civil RIghts Movement were not simultaneous.
I remember lsarning the state capitas and Presidents.
I learned the Presidents in groups. Washington through Jackson. Van Buren to Chester Arthur, Grover Cleveland to Coolidge and then the modern group.
There was no real system. Washington and Jackson were famous Generals. That formed the first group.
The middle group is the hardest because most of them are pretty uninteresting except Lincoln and Grant.
Grover Cleveland is famous for his split terms in office. Stay cool with Coolidge. It’s easy remembering the others in this group.
Modern is very easy. Hoover the failure, Roosevelt the depression President, Truman dropped the A bomb, Ike was the WWII Supreme commander, JFK got killed, Tricky Dick Nixon.
I found learning the capitals the hardest. I can tell you the capital of New Hampshire, Arizona or any that you want. Don’t expect me to write out all fifty states. I always forroppeget several.
I never had to memorize them, but if I’m lucky, if you say a name, I can tell you whether he was Prez or not. I know Eisenhower was President when I was born, and if I think hard enough, I can name them in order thru my life. I might remember a few VPs. And despite all the documentaries I’ve seen about English monarchs, I only remember a random few.
Apart from winning trivia contests, what’s the point of knowing them all in order by heart? I’m not saying we shouldn’t learn about our history, but a broad understanding and access to Google should serve anyone’s needs, shouldn’t it?
8 years in the White House and whatever he did for the rest of his career, and that’s all any of us remember about him. Poor bastard. I suppose it’s better than Harrison being remembered mostly for dying in office after 30 days.
Grover was Mayor of Buffalo and known for fighting corruption.
History did a series on the Presidents. Spent maybe 20 minutes on each and highlighted elements of their career.
I found it interesting. Every President was important while they were in office. Our schools sometimes skip around in history. It’s hard covering it all.
What’s the point of knowing anything? For me, it’s just basic information that comes up now and then. If I were a chemist, maybe I’d have the Periodic Table memorized long ago, not that I couldn’t do a little research about every element whenever it popped into a conversation. It serves as a kind of memory-jogger–if someone mentions the Spanish-American War, for example, I can place that at the end of McKinley’s first term (1807-1901) because I know that Teddy Roosevelt served in it before McKinley chose him as his VP for his second term. Or if someone mentions the failure of Reconstruction, I can place that in the late 1870s (and beyond) because I have a few facts about Rutherford Hayes’ close election in 1876, and the way he got elected by bargaining away enforcement of black folks’ rights. It’s a way of anchoring me in history a little bit. Of course, professional historians must go much further than just memorizing Presidents, but we all have to start somewhere.
I never had to memorize the list of U.S. presidents when I was in school. But, just by dint of being in my 50s, and knowing a fair amount about 20th century U.S. history, I know all of them, in order, from Hoover onwards. If I sat down and had to list as many U.S. presidents as I knew, I would probably get most of them, but I guarantee I would be missing a few from the 19th century, and I have no confidence that I’d get them in the right order.
As far as British PMs, I could probably name most of them from the 1960s on, but again, I’d likely miss a few, and not get them in the right order.
I don’t think I ever “had to” do it either. I was just a geeky kid who thought it would be a cool thing to be able to recite. Still do, I guess, but like I say, it’s absolutely nothing to professional historians.
To me, it’s a little bit of a pedagogical parlor trick, akin to having students memorize the books of the Bible in order, or the periodic table. I’m not sure how much absolute value it has in the learning process, other than familiarizing the student with who/what is on the list.
As someone who was also a highly geeky kid, I can see this. It just wasn’t my particular brand of geekiness. 
My schools still used rote learning. They made it easier by using multiple choice or True False questions.
We learned the human bones in science class. A multiple choice question might ask for a bone in the leg. Seeing the word helped prompt our memory.
Fill in the blank questions are much harder.
I’ve forgotten a lot of that information. I remember the names of a few bones and that’s it.
On Old Olympus’s Topmost Top, A Fat-Eared German Viewed A Hop.
This takes me back to my most hated engineering class. The professor required us to memorize definitions, word-for-word, and spew them back on exams. But he didn’t make the additional effort to make sure we understood what we were spewing. I passed the class and learned nothing, because once I regurgitated the definitions to his satisfaction, I promptly forgot them. Far better had he ensured we understood the concepts and knew where we could find the information when we needed it.
Yeah, 45 years later and I’m still pissed about it. 