I agree with you. Without a sizeable baseline of knowledge, students cannot hone the ability to analyse information, much less synthesise and create new products. I try to create pockets of time to force even my weak-progress kids to think. Specifically come up with their original Show Not Tell phrases. Their phrases mayn’t garner them as many marks as those bombastic phrases paraded about by tuition centres, but they will do well to boost their self-esteem

cryotosensei

Stacker Saloon

saloon

I'm actually much more supportive of rote memorization / drilling than I used to be.  **Especially** for lower SES kids.

Pursuit of higher order thinking is good, but higher order thinking is made easier when you have a large knowledge base to work with, that you can call up quickly, evne if you don't fully understand all of it.
