downing] 



CHILDREN'S IXTEREST 



335 



It is quite apparent that the letters that are printed are more 

 or less typical and the data are herewith presented. The same 

 question was answered in the department only three times. There 

 were 732 children who asked questions or made observations, of 

 whom 301 were boys and 441 girls: 116 of the boys gave 

 their ages and 173 of the girls. The average age of the 

 boys was 11.90 years, of the girls 12.08 years. It is to be 

 noted that Miss Mau in her investigations was dealing with much 

 younger children, — those from the kindergarten to the third grade, 

 so that a comparison of results will help us see what changes 

 there are in the child's interest with advancing years. 



The St. Nicholas data them- 

 selves threw little or no light 

 on this question, since the dis- 

 tribution of children by age 

 merely shows at what age St. 

 Nicholas is usually taken, 

 rather than the relative inter- 

 ests of the children at various 

 ages. Observations are given 

 in 295 cases ; 447 questions 

 are asked, making a total of 

 742. Of this total 20.6 per 

 cent concerns plant material, 

 61 per cent animal material. 

 11.6 per cent physical material 

 and 1.8 per cent miscellany 

 that can be classed under 

 neither of these heads, largely 

 observations on the enjoy- 

 ment of the beauty and com- 

 panionship of nature. The 

 graphic representation of 

 these percentages makes it 

 very clear that a child's inter- 

 est in animals is the major in- 

 terest and if we may accept 

 Miss Man's results as a basis 

 for a fair comparison, the ani- 

 Graph of Children's Interests.- "^^^ interests increase from 

 A, Plant Material; B, Animal; C. ^^^ e^'"'-^' "''^^^5 to the upper 

 Physical; D, Miscellany. One-six- grades, 

 teenth inch equals one per cent. ^IJss Mau stated that the 



