The "Drill and Kill" Myth
To achieve the advanced, students must begin with the basics.
One of the ugliest words in the English language, for progressive educators and environmentalists alike, is “drill.” To have students memorize information or internalize skills through repetitive exercises is widely regarded as anachronistic, antithetical to true learning, even tantamount to child abuse. Such rote learning is condemned as “drill and kill,” because it supposedly kills the student’s creativity, critical thinking, and love of learning.
But the wholesale rejection of drilling has been to the great detriment of students. It has denied them a highly effective way to “furnish the mind” (a classical education expression) with facts and language patterns: material that children need in order to be creative and critical. To expect kids to be creative without first giving them mental building blocks with which to create is to set them up for failure and frustration. The same goes for expecting them to think critically without first instilling in them facts and ideas with which to think. That is why creative writing and critical thinking assignments so often leave students stumped. That, in turn, makes them feel dumb which is what really extinguishes their desire to learn.
Conversely, walking students through doable memorization exercises and then later building on the knowledge thereby attained with more sophisticated (yet still doable) assignments is to set them up for success. As students accumulate learning “wins,” they gain confidence in their own ability to learn. And that is what really nurtures a love of learning.
Drills don’t kill. They fill and instill.
Thankfully, outside the classroom, when it comes to teaching skills, drilling is still generally appreciated and widely used. Martial arts students, for example, practice prescribed motions over and over again until they are embedded in muscle memory. Then the student can readily—even reflexively—access those moves while sparring, competing, or even fighting for his life. As David Allen wrote in his book Ready for Anything: 52 Productivity Principles for Getting Things Done:
In karate, I practiced “forms” or “katas.” They are sets of stylized moves—very specific responses to two or more imaginary adversaries. Learning the forms takes intense concentration and discipline. Once you learn it, the form is the arena within which you continually sharpen focus, speed, and precision. You are never just doing a kata. A black belt who gets jumped in a dark alley doesn’t do “the form.” It’s never that pretty or clean. But he does what he does with focus, speed, and precision, which he could never have otherwise acquired.
Think of the classic scene in the movie The Karate Kid in which the student Daniel is, much to his chagrin, directed by his sensei Mr. Miyagi to “wax on, wax off” so many cars that it takes him all day. Later, when Daniel is able to use those ingrained motions to block blows, he realizes it was all worth it.
Similarly, music students are drilled on scales, arpeggios, chords, runs, and pieces to build up a repertoire they can later use and draw from for more creative and expressive musical endeavors. As writing coach and former violin instructor Andrew Pudewa wrote in his book However Imperfectly: Lessons Learned from Thirty Years of Teaching:
Imagine a method of teaching where we give the student a violin and with cursory directions on how to make a sound, encourage him to “be creative” and “express himself.” The result won’t much resemble music. (…)
When teaching music, we prescribe a graded repertoire for the student and model for him exactly the way to play the pieces. We do this for years, gradually increasing the technical complexity of the material until the student has a solid foundation of basic skills. Then it is appropriate and effective to introduce creative ideas such as interpretation, improvisation, and composition.
This is the best approach to teaching any skill. Unfortunately, it is no longer the way schools teach the skills of writing and speaking. As Pudewa wrote:
Throughout most of history, the arts of language have been taught through memorization and recitation, reading and copywork. Imitation is critical. Even well-known authors like Benjamin Franklin, Jack London, and Somerset Maugham recorded the benefits they obtained through the practice of trying to imitate existing good writing and re-present already well-organized ideas.
Furnishing the mind is an indispensable foundation for creativity, critical thinking, and cultivating a love of learning. Practice makes perfect, proficient, and proud. A powerful way to do both is to “drill, baby, drill.”
Everything in life worth achieving requires practice. In fact, life itself is nothing more than one long practice session, an endless effort of refining our motions.
—Thomas Sterner