I think the focus on grades is more harmful than helpful, to be honest. It just puts a ton of pressure on them to perform instead of learning.

And yeah, regarding philosophy/observation of reality, I agree! In case I wasn't clear, I mean philosophy as in.. teaching philosophy, or mantra, as it were.

There are definitely times where you just gotta memorize something.. like names. It's difficult to "understand" those (though not impossible if there's a pattern. Friend of mine has siblings all named the same base word with minor changes.)

But yes. Math, science, social studies, law, etc. You don't need to memorize almost any of it if you UNDERSTAND IT. You can reason out dates of historic events, you can reasonably guess why the mass immigration into the US stopped in like the 1920's, etc.

So that's how I try to teach.