One cause is that you learned skills that aren’t meta skills but also aren’t simple facts. For instance, you might have learned the general methods that you follow to do your job. I’m not a lawyer, but in my field, I got a lot out of my classes, even though I don’t remember anything from many of them.
these classes quickly devolve into base concerns of “How do we fix this client’s problem?” rather than the lofty aim of “Let’s learn how to learn.”
I’d guess that perhaps what the class what trying to teach you was “How do we fix this client’s problem?,” and it sounds like you learned that, even if you don’t remember the details. Those are easily relearnable. Learning the methodology though is much more difficult. I wouldn’t have the first clue what to do as a lawyer, but you were ready after law school to go and be one, so you clearly learned something very useful.
In addition, a lot of material you cover in class is to reinforce the core concepts. Much of what a student in calculus learns isn’t actually relevant (hardly anyone needs to have memorized the formula for finding the volume of a shell) but is instead practice of the core materials (finding the volume of a shell helps you learn how to integrate).
One cause is that you learned skills that aren’t meta skills but also aren’t simple facts. For instance, you might have learned the general methods that you follow to do your job. I’m not a lawyer, but in my field, I got a lot out of my classes, even though I don’t remember anything from many of them.
I’d guess that perhaps what the class what trying to teach you was “How do we fix this client’s problem?,” and it sounds like you learned that, even if you don’t remember the details. Those are easily relearnable. Learning the methodology though is much more difficult. I wouldn’t have the first clue what to do as a lawyer, but you were ready after law school to go and be one, so you clearly learned something very useful.
In addition, a lot of material you cover in class is to reinforce the core concepts. Much of what a student in calculus learns isn’t actually relevant (hardly anyone needs to have memorized the formula for finding the volume of a shell) but is instead practice of the core materials (finding the volume of a shell helps you learn how to integrate).