Saturday, August 10, 2019

Old-Fashioned Lessons: Drills

Fun, huh? Not! But, oh, so important!

Drills are part of memorization. For the Grammar stage of subjects such as playing musical instruments and sports, drills are physical rather than mental or verbal. Drills, once again, form neural pathways. During the Olympics several years ago, they put up a quote: "An amateur practices until he gets it right; a professional practices until he can't get it wrong."

Just as you don't have to think when you pick up a pencil, by physically or mentally drilling you get to where you don't have to think about what you are doing. The more neural pathways are formed, the more capability a person of any age will have.

I started learning my first instrument, the flute, at age 9. I  began my second, the piano, at age 10. Visiting my aunt at age 11, I dabbled with her recorder, which she then gave me. I sprained my pinky finger in gym when I was 12, so I picked up my mother's mandolin and was playing the theme to Romeo and Juliet by the end of the evening. My parent brought me home a mountain dulcimer from a vacation they took to the Appalachians when I was 18 and I play it regularly in church. I then went to college and got a degree in Music Education, learning eleven more instruments.

Here's the thing: I don't believe I had more than a little bit of talent. I had a lot of friends at school who played far better than I did. My college advisor complimented me on how easily I picked up instruments to my junior high supervising teacher. The supervising teacher didn't think I deserved much credit! Simply learning one instrument taught me how to learn the next and each instrument forged new neural pathways, making each subsequent instrument that much easier to learn.

The same thing has been documented in learning new languages.Even just in the skills of housework, learning to clean one type of surface teaches you skills that transfer to other surfaces, both visually -- what does clean look like? -- and  physically -- what does the surface feel like when dirty or clean and what movements are used to clean? Drilling information makes it yours so you don't have to count on your fingers to know what 7 X 8 equals.

A friend's husband was deployed from the National Guard to Afghanistan in September. He would be returning the following September, but his unit didn't leave the country until March! What were they doing all that time? Drilling! They were training for 6 months of the time that they were paid to be full-time soldiers. Drilling would get them to the point that they responded automatically in crisis situations when they didn't have time to think.

Our family does a Doctrinal Drill that is part of the Bible Lessons from Christ-Centered Curriculum for Early Childhood. Along with reading through the major events of the Bible, they learn a catechism that teaches them over 70 verses in support of the main doctrines of the church and for application to life. Since this is our family Bible time, every child in the family studies it from age 2 to when they graduate high school. The drill has made those verses a solid block in their memories. In life situations or in family discussions, we'll ask them what the Bible says about this (whatever it is) and it is wonderful how often they will pluck a verse out of their Doctrinal Drill and apply it perfectly. Awana Clubs do this as well, with review built into every level, and many verses expanded in each succeeding book.

Children (and adults!) complain about drills. But, to make any skill go from short-term, temporary, fluid, electrical memory to long-term, concrete, crystalline, chemical memory requires hundreds of repetitions. No fun, but so helpful!

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