tly and easily recall the new truth or
knowledge. Drill is the agency that accomplishes this result. Note how
often a boy or girl repeats some new sentence or word or game in order
to fix its easy recall. Many teachers think repetition deadens
interest. But without repetition Comenius rightly declares we do not
know solidly. Repetition is nature's way of developing strength. It is
of prime importance that every new truth be drilled until it is as
familiar to the learner as old knowledge. Then it becomes easy of
recall and ready for use. The wise teacher will avoid the abuse of the
drill by so varying the exercise as to secure a maximum of interest,
for interest is the basis of pleasure, and the soul does not easily
retain knowledge that is not pleasurable.

#79. Examination# is the process through which the teacher aims to
test the result of instruction and learning. Its value is twofold: it
adds to the learner's knowledge by the preparation he makes for the
examination, and it gives the teacher a means of measuring the results
obtained through instruction and drill. If the examination tests only
knowledge gained by direct teaching, it is of little value. If, on the
contrary, the questions are so phrased as to cause the pupil to think
his way out of things known into some newer and higher order of
knowledge, it is a valuable exercise. Usually before examinations are
given the teacher and pupils join in a _review_.

#80.# The #review# is an invaluable teaching agency when it results in
such a reorganization of unrelated or partly related facts of
knowledge as to give the pupil a clearer and surer grasp upon the
relative value of the facts previously acquired. A drill fixes a given
fact more securely or solidly in the soul; a review organizes these
drilled facts into new systems and wider classifications. It is seeing
the old once more, but seeing it from a new point of vantage; just as
a man climbing a tower with windows at stated points sees in each case
all that he saw before, but sees it in a new setting, sees it as part
of a larger scene, and sees it finally as a part of a mighty whole.
Wisely conducted, the review establishes proportion in the knowledge
set in the soul and leads finally and directly to the fact that all
truth is at last one truth; all life at last one life; all parts at
last one great infinite unity, whose name is God.

Test Questions

1. What two processes are at work in every good recitation