Did anyone's parents emphasize on memorizing their answers word by word to questions during their school time?

Not really, the music teacher taught us to memorize things, and I memorized a book of Ogden Nash poetry when I was eight, so I could enjoy the poems when the book wasn't there.
Our parents generation was forced to memorize Kipling and Longfellow, Emerson and Thoreau passages,. Which they resented. They didn't like memorization, and sometimes even punished kids for using it, like it wasn't fair or something.

Why would they do that

nope