The essence of a true habit is its purely automatic character. Reaction
must follow upon the stimulus instantaneously, without thought,
reflection, or judgment. One has not taught spelling efficiently until
spelling is automatic, until the correct form flows from the pen without
the intervention of mind. The real test of the pupil's training in
spelling is his ability to spell the word correctly when he is thinking,
not about spelling, but about the content of the sentence that he is
writing. Consequently the test of efficiency in spelling is not an
examination in spelling, although this may be valuable as a means to an
end, but rather the infrequency with which misspelled words appear in
the composition work, letter writing, and other written work of the
pupil. Similarly in language and grammar, it is not sufficient to
instruct in rules of syntax. This is but the initial process.
Grammatical rules function effectively only when they function
automatically. So long as one must think and judge and reflect upon the
form of one's expression, the expression is necessarily awkward and
inadequate.
The same rule holds in respect of the fundamental processes of
arithmetic. It holds in penmanship, in articulation and enunciation, in
word recognition, in moral conduct and good manners; in fact, in all of
the basic work for which the elementary school must stand sponsor. And
one source of danger in the newer methods of education lies in the
tendency to overlook the importance of carrying habit-building processes
through to a successful issue. The reaction against drill, against
formal work of all sorts, is a healthful reaction in many ways. It bids
fair to break up the mechanical lock step of the elementary grades, and
to introduce some welcome life, and vigor, and wholesomeness. But it
will sadly defeat its own purpose if it underrates the necessity of
habit building as the basic activity of early education.
What is needed, now that we have got away from the lock step, now that
we are happily emancipated from the meaningless thralldom of mechanical
repetition and the worship of drill for its own sake--what is needed now
is not less drill, but better drill. And this should be the net result
of the recent reforms in elementary education. In our first enthusiasm,
we threw away the spelling book, poked fun at the multiplication tables,
decried basal reading, and relieved ourselves of much wit and sarcasm at
the expense of formal grammar. But now we are swinging back to the
adequate recognition of the true purpose of drill. And in the wake of
this newer conception, we are learning that its drudgery may be
lightened and its efficiency heightened by the introduction of a richer
content that shall provide a greater variety in the repetitions, insure
an adequate motive for effort, and relieve the dead monotony that
frequently rendered the older methods so futile. I look forward to the
time when to be an efficient drillmaster in this newer sense of the term
will be to have reached one of the pinnacles of professional skill.