“Dates do not matter. It’s the ideas that matter.”
–Albert Einstein

I’m forgetful about facts like dates. I can never remember them. They always slip through my mind. Unfortunately, the education system in our part of the world is more into rote learning and mugging up than generating ideas and finding ways to conduct research. I think it’s the idea that’s more significant than the particular date when a specific event took place. And it’s totally unfair to penalize someone and put a question mark on his or her caliber simply because they have not learnt the dates by heart. For example, I’ve taught Virginia Woolf’s “Orlando” in the Masters level but I don’t know the exact date it was published. I do know that it was in the 1920s though. And I believe it’s sufficient. People should not be judged on the basis of their power to memorize. Memories are not our possessions. Ideas are. So we must be able to possess or come up with more of those.