Rote Makes Right?

http://www.edutopia.org/rote-learning-benefits

Interesting article defending the use of memorization methodology in classrooms, the explanation being that forcing information to occupy the short-term memory part of the brain allows for the opportunity for it to be absorbed into the long-term section. The writers explains:

Bloom's Taxonomy maintains that the highest order of thinking occurs at the evaluating and creating levels which infer that the thinkers must have knowledge, facts, data, or information in their brains to combine into something new, or with which to judge relative importance or value. Therefore, effective knowledge acquisition has to come first.

I'm not exactly sure how memorization segways into the ability to think deeply and critically; I think science needs to figure out which one is the cart and which one the horse.