I attended public schools in Tennessee, and graduated in 2000, and had to memorize portions of The Canterbury Tales, the “But soft, what light through yonder window breaks….” monologue from Romeo and Juliet, and Edgar Allen Poe’s Annabelle Lee, amongst others, but a best friend who graduated from a private school in Pennsylvania a couple years before me seemed surprised at this. I, in turn, am a little surprised that she didn’t have the same experience, so I’m curious about others’ experiences.
I absolutely had to do this and goddamnit, I fucking hated it. I might have been the captain of the speech and debate team, but I suck ass at memorizing things. Awful.
Oh, public school.
Public school, and I didn’t have to. I did end up knowing a fair bit of stuff off by heart, but that was just a natural consequence of reading it so many times.
Public school, graduated in 1980, Midwest. Didn’t have to memorize ANY lit, not even poetry. I did memorize the “But soft” speech because I thought it was beautiful. I also memorized some poetry in AP English because ditto.
What is the point of memorizing for class? Isn’t it better to read and discuss/analyze?
Public school, NJ, graduated in 1984. We had this in jr. high school. Our English teacher allowed us to memorize and recite Shakespeare soliloquies for extra credit.
I was extraordinarily shy but apparently also a huge ham, so I did this. I’m glad I did.
I went to public school and didn’t have to memorize anything. What were you supposed to get out of memorizing texts?
When we memorized, we also discussed and analyzed, and the memorization was treated as equal to a final test.
I voted “did not” (public school), but…
In the 8th grade I was forced to memorize the Gettysburg Address. Whether or not that counts as a “long portion of classic literature,” that was the only such thing I was required to memorize, and the other option is clearly plural.
Public school, late 50’s/early 60’s. No memorization in high school, but in junior high we had to memorize fairly long poems – The Children’s Hour, The Village Blacksmith, chunks of Hiawatha and that one about Acadia.
Actually, maybe it was for extra credit, because I don’t remember that many of us did it.
Like the OP’s friend, I’m also surprised that this is a real thing. I went to public schools and remember occasionally having to memorize and recite things like the Preamble to the Constitution for History/Social Studies classes, but IIRC never anything for an English Lit class. I have heard of students being required to memorize A poem (often “The Raven”), but not multiple poems or passages from dramatic or prose works.
This kind of thing did occasionally come up as an extra credit assignment, but not that often.
The point is to train your memory, that thing which gives you something to discuss when you’re not reading the source material while analyzing it, (AKA “conversation”). 
But seriously, that’s why you memorize stuff - to train your memory.
We had to memorize quite a bit of Julius Caesar and R&J. And, like others, had to recite the Gettysburg address and the Declaration of Independence.
Also, in grade/elementary school (1st-3rd grades), we learned states, countries (and capitals, of course), continents, by memorization (which helped a hell of a lot when the subjects turned to more complicated items as periodic tables, the krebs cycle, etc).
I’m always surprised to hear people genuinely ask “why/what good is memorization?” for I wonder how do they learn any facts if they don’t, you know, remember them?
Mr. Brunson in my ninth grade English class had us all memorize Poe’s* The Bells.* That was nowhere near the worst thing he had us do, but he was still the best teacher I ever had.
Only when we were acting out a scene. It wasn’t a test or anything.
In college one of my profs made us memorize the first part of Paradise Lost. It was on our final exam.
Private religious school. No memorization for a literature class; instead, we had to memorize incredibly long passages of the KJV Bible for oral recitation, which was annoying. Especially annoying since my mom made me participate in a weekly church kid’s group called AWANA which also required Bible verse memorization for oral recitation, so much of my academic life was monopolized by this task.
I was at a private Catholic school. Memorisation was not required, although I learnt all the obvious quotes that would be useful in exams.
Public school here. No memorization was required, but on my own, I also memorized passages that would come in handy on exams.
Public school - “here lies the most noble roman of them all, all the conspirators, save only he did that they did in envy of great Ceasar”…also, the preamble to the constitution which everyone knew because of Schoolhouse rock and several French poems 'il pleur dans mon coeur" and “Mignonne, allons voir si la rose” and “Il a mis le cafe sur la tasse” and “Demain, des l’aube, a l’heure ou blanchit la campagne”…all of which I still remember.
Even when we acted out scenes from plays, we had the books in hand.