Brandell ['13] obtained data from 2137 Swedish children in Stockholm (327), Norrköping (870), and Gothenburg (940).
In general he found, as others have, that handwork, shopwork for boys and household work for girls, and drawing were reported as much better liked than arithmetic. So also was history, and (in this he differs from most students of this matter) so were reading and nature study. Gymnastics he finds less liked than arithmetic. Religion, geography, language, spelling, and writing are, as in other studies, much less popular than arithmetic.
Other studies are by Lilius ['11] in Finland, Walsemann ['07], Wiederkehr ['07], Pommer ['14], Seekel ['14], and Stern ['13 and '14], in Germany. They confirm the general results stated.
The reasons for the good showing that arithmetic makes are probably the strength of its appeal to the interest in definite achievement, success, doing what one attempts to do; and of its appeal, in grades 5 to 8, to the practical interest of getting on in the world, acquiring abilities that the world pays for. Of these, the former is in my opinion much the more potent interest. Arithmetic satisfies it especially well, because, more than any other of the 'intellectual' studies of the elementary school, it permits the pupil to see his own progress and determine his own success or failure.
The most important applications of the psychology of satisfiers and annoyers to arithmetic will therefore be in the direction of utilizing still more effectively this interest in achievement. Next in importance come the plans to attach to arithmetical learning the satisfyingness of bodily action, play, sociability, cheerfulness, and the like, and of significance as a means of securing other desired ends than arithmetical abilities themselves. Next come plans to relieve arithmetical learning from certain discomforts such as the eyestrain of some computations and excessive copying of figures. These will be discussed here in the inverse order.
At present arithmetical work is, hour for hour, probably more of a tax upon the eyes than reading. The task of copying numbers from a book to a sheet of paper is one of the very hardest tasks that the eyes of a pupil in the elementary schools have to perform. A certain amount of such work is desirable to teach a child to write numbers, to copy exactly, and to organize material in shape for computation. But beyond that, there is no more reason for a pupil to copy every number with which he is to compute than for him to copy every word he is to read. The meaningless drudgery of copying figures should be mitigated by arranging much work in the form of exercises like those shown on pages 216, 217, and 218, and by having many of the textbook examples in addition, subtraction, and multiplication done with a slip of paper laid below the numbers, the answers being written on it. There is not only a resulting gain in interest, but also a very great saving of time for the pupil (very often copying an example more than quadruples the time required to get its answer), and a much greater efficiency in supervision. Arithmetical errors are not confused with errors of copying,[16] and the teacher's task of following a pupil's work on the page is reduced to a minimum, each pupil having put the same part of the day's work in just the same place. The use of well-printed and well-spaced pages of exercises relieves the eyestrain of working with badly made gray figures, unevenly and too closely or too widely spaced. I reproduce in Fig. 25 specimens taken at random from one hundred random samples of arithmetical work by pupils in grade 8. Contrast the task of the eyes in working with these and their task in working with pages 216 to 218. The customary method of always copying the numbers to be used in computation from blackboard or book to a sheet of paper is an utterly unjustifiable cruelty and waste.