Don't knock learning by rote. I can still recite all twelve times tables and just a couple of days ago I had need to recite the Alphabet. All still serviceable 60 plus years later. No understanding needed, simple rote memory. Not that understanding is not valuable, of course it is, but so is stuff learned by heart. Like lyrics, tunes and whatever else.

Having said that I retired from teaching two years early and was glad to get out. I was getting told how to teach by people less than half my age.