We all know confidently incorrect people. People displaying dunning-kruger. The majority of those people have low education and without someone giving them objectively true feedback on their opinions through their developmental years, they start to believe everything they think is true even without evidence.
Memorizing facts, dates, and formulas aren’t what necessarily makes someone intelligent. It’s the ability to second guess yourself and have an appropriate amount of confidence relative to your knowledge that is a sign of intelligence.
I could be wrong though.
I think it’s more nuanced than that, and it really depends on the level of education.
Making kids memorise things also teaches them the process of learning a thing. Testing them on facts, dates, and formulas has value because it tests whether they’re able to learn those facts, dates, and formulas.
In high school maths, I had to learn formulas. When I was applying to university, the admissions test came with a formula booklet. It was assumed I knew how to learn formulas, they were testing whether I’d learned how to look up the correct formula, and apply it. They weren’t just testing my mathematical ability, they were simultaneously testing my reference skills. I only really appreciated that when I was much older.
Well, there’s different ways of learning things and i’m more the associative type, which is quite the reverse of memorizing.