our particular situation. Here
again, as in the inductive lesson, the skillful teacher makes his
greatest contribution by having children become increasingly careful in
this step of verification. Almost any one can pass through the several
stages involved in deductive thinking and arrive at a wrong conclusion.
That which distinguishes the careful thinker from the careless student
is the sincerity of the former in his unwillingness to accept his
conclusions until they are verified.

_The Drill Lesson._ The drill lesson is so clearly a matter of fixing
habits that little needs to be added to the chapter dealing with this
subject. If one were to attempt to give in order the steps of the
process involved, they might be stated as follows: (1) establishing a
motive for forming the habit; (2) knowing exactly what we wish to do, or
the habit or skill to be acquired; (3) recognition of the importance of
the focusing of attention during the period devoted to repetitions; (4)
variation in practice in order to lessen fatigue and to help to fix
attention; (5) a recognition of the danger of making mistakes, with
consequent provision against lapses; (6) the principle of review, which
may be stated best by suggesting that the period between practice
exercises may only gradually be lengthened.

Possibly the greatest deficiency in drill work, as commonly conducted,
is found in the tendency upon the part of some teachers to depend upon
repetition involving many mistakes. This is due quite frequently to the
assignment of too much to be accomplished. Twenty-five words in
spelling, a whole multiplication table, a complete conjugation in Latin,
all suggest the danger of mistakes which will be difficult to eliminate
later on. The wise teacher is the one who provides very carefully
against mistakes upon the part of pupils. He assigns a minimum number of
words, or a number of combinations, or a part of a conjugation, and
takes care to discover that children are sure of themselves before
indulging in that practice which is to fix the habit.

In much of the drill work there is, of course, the desirability of
gaining in speed. In this field successful teachers have discovered that
much is gained by more or less artificial stimuli which seem to be
altogether outside of the work required to form a habit. In drill on
column addition successful work is done by placing the problem on the
board and following through the combinations by pointing the po