A steadily growing portion of American education is about rote memorization instead of critical thinking because we tied testing to funding and true/false is easier to grade

Me personally? Nope, I just stole this meme from somewhere else (like how all good memes spread)

Like not memorize the table but memorize the atomic numbers and valence electrons? Just memorize the alkali earth metals or the halogens? I don't see how you wouldn't be forced to memorize the table in some way

In high school I agree that learning it by heart is unnecessary. Studying chemistry in university though, I agree that the students there should know, at least roughly, where each element is. After all, a lot of reactivity and behavior depends on their period and which group they are in.