Arguing that nothing worth learning can be learned by rote, because if it could, we would have already invented Automata to do it by rote:

In regard to the mode of instruction pursued in our schools, there is, I regret to say, still too great an adherence to the antiquated and condemned 'Rote' system, by which the mind of the pupil is crammed, not cultivated, the faculties dwarfed, not developed, words substituted for ideas, and a perfect recitation is thought to consist in being able to repeat, Parrot-like, the language of the Text book, regardless of its meaning.

This is machine teaching, and machine learning, and if an education could be thus obtained, Yankee ingenuity would long since have invented Automata, to do the work quite as well, and much more cheaply.