Michigan switched to a proficiency that is not memorized word for word?
The truth is yes, they did. Basically the different points of the proficiency are repeated to the candidate and he agrees to them. Only the exchange of the grip and it's name are memorized. They also printed out the ritual in plain text.
I found your comments on the memorization process interesting. I went back to school later in life. I found memorizing more difficult than I remembered, so I read some things about memorization and test taking. One of the things that struck me was the statement that learning information is a
different process than recalling information. It struck me that the unspoken consequence of Michigan's decision was to not teach the art of recall to new Masons.
The consequences of this was brought home to me in a very personal way some time later. My Lodge was planning an EA degree and it became apparent that we had no one to do the lecture. So I determined that I would go home and try to learn the lecture
secretly from my printed ritual, and that if I was successful I would then offer to do it during the degree. I was able to learn it and I did perform it during the degree. However there was an unexpected consequence from learning to perform the work. One day afterwards I was faced with a particularly difficult and unpleasant task and I was looking for any excuse to avoid it. When BAM! suddenly this whole paragraph from the EA lecture jumped into my head, "Fortitude is that noble virtue which.................." So I did the task, and it wasn't that bad.
My point here is that maybe the reason we learn the work is not so we can
do the work. Maybe the reason is because of what doing the work
teaches us. Maybe it is about the changes that happen
secretly in our minds because of what actions we choose.
Lest anyone think this post is about bashing Michigan Masonry, let me say that when the Grand Lodge changed the ritual many Michigan Masons began encouraging new Masons to learn the lectures and that the Noble Art continued unimpeded.