had gone to another part of the building. Before leaving for home
Johnny politely left this note on the teacher's desk: "Dear Teacher: I
have went home." Plenty of drill, but it was not accompanied by
interest and attention, and hence left no effect.

_c. Drill must not stop short of a reasonable degree of efficiency, or
skill._--Most teachers would rather _test_ or _teach_ than _drill_.
Others do not see the necessity of drill. Hence it happens that a
large proportion of our pupils are not given practice or drill enough
to arrive at even a fair degree of skill. Set ten pupils of the
intermediate grades to adding up four columns of figures averaging a
footing of 100 to the column, and you will probably have at least five
different answers. And so with many of the fundamentals in other
branches as well. _We too often stop practice just short of
efficiency, and thereby waste both time and effort._

_d. Drill must be governed by definite aims._--Probably drilling
requires more planning and care on the part of the teacher than any
other work of the recitation. Drill applied indiscriminately wastes
time and kills interest. To study a spelling lesson over fifteen times
as some teachers require is folly. Every spelling list will contain
some words which the pupil already knows. He should put little or no
drill on these, but only on the troublesome ones. In learning and
using the principal parts of verbs it is always the few that cause the
difficulty. "He _done_ it"; "Has the bell _rang_?" "_Set_ down." These
and a few other forms are the ones which give the trouble; they should
receive the drill. Likewise in arithmetic, there are certain
combinations in the tables, and certain operations in fractions,
measurements, etc., which always make trouble. They are the "danger
points," and upon these the practice should be put.