I do not believe that it is factual, that facts are retained better when grabbed than when stuffed - the fact is, knowledge is retained when it is USED, regardless of how it got there.

If you wait till kids WANT to know the multiplication table, for example, they won't learn it; then when they need it, it won't already be there. Do the drills to make them memorize it by rote, then when they need it, they will have it.

Either way, once they have to use it they will retain it, but in the second case, they didn't have to go back and learn it with the difficulty of an adult learning a foreign language. Instead, they got it with ease.

Also, if children aren't made to work during the industry v. inferiority stage they don't develop into hard workers.