is demanded. Drill
provides for the repetition of the mental or physical act until habit
has made it second nature and it goes on practically doing itself. There
is no way to get a high degree of skill without drill, for the simple
reason that the brain requires a certain amount of repeated action
before it can carry out the necessary operations without error and
without the application of conscious thought.

Drill lessons in the church school.--While the church-school teacher
will not require so much use of drill as the day-school teacher, it is
highly essential that drill shall not be omitted at points where it is
needed. There are some things which the child should learn very
thoroughly and completely in his study of religion. He should know a few
prayers by heart, so that their words come to him naturally and easily
when he desires to use them. He should know the words and music of
certain songs and hymns suited to his age. He should learn certain Bible
passages of rare beauty, and other sentiments, verses, and poems found
outside the Bible. He should come, as a matter of convenience and skill,
to know the names and order of the books of the Bible. In some churches
he is required to know the catechism. Whatever of such material is to be
mastered fully and completely must receive careful drill.

Principles for conducting the drill.--The first step in a successful
drill lesson is to _supply a motive_ for the drill. This is necessary in
order to secure alertness and effort. _Mere_ repetition is not drill.
Monotonous going over the words of a poem or the list of books of the
Bible with wandering or slack attention will fail of results. The
learner must be keyed up, and give himself whole-heartedly to the work.
Let the child come to feel a real _need_ of mastery, and one great
motive is supplied. Let him desire the words of the song because he is
to sing in the chorus, or desire the words of the poem because he is to
take part in a pageant, and there will be little trouble about
willingness to drill.

Again, the competitive impulse can often be used to motivate drill. The
child is ambitious to stand at the head of his class, or to beat his own
record of performance, or to win the appreciation or praise of teacher
or parents, or he has a pride in personal achievement--these are all
worthy motives, and can be made of great service in conducting classroom
or individual drills. The posting of a piece of good work done by a