An enquiry into the factors affecting the child's preference for school subjects

During a teaching career extending over twenty years in which the Writer has taught as a sole teacher, assistant in large town schools, headteacher of Maori school, as an itinerant instructor in Agriculture, and as an Education Officer with the Armed Forces, he has been struck by the frequency with which sweeping generalisations are made by many members of the teaching profession. Among these most frequently made are such as, "Boys like handwork better than do girls"; "Clever children prefer arithmetic to handwork." Such statements have aroused his interest in the matter of the child's alleged likes and dislikes for school subjects. If such likes and dislikes do ,in fact, exist, then it is felt that as teachers we should know what these are.