Figure 1.--This unidentified school is an English class photographed in 1937. It is unidentified, but the studio was New Southgate, a residential suburb of North London. It looks like it may be a private pre-prep school. Private schools were mostly sungle gender schools, but classes for the younger children might be mixed. The grounds and several boys wearing school blazers suggest a private school. Notice that several boys are wearing blouses. The studio was R.W. Crane in New Southgate. A british reader wries, "Interesting photogtaph. One girl has her arm in a sling, probabky she has broken her arm. One boy wearing specticals has what is commonly called a lazy eye. He is having corrective therapy and his good eye is covered to make his lazy eye work better. This is very uncomfortable and the boy will find it difficult to focus properly."

Europe and other Western ciyntries were still the only countries that had extensive public educrion systems. By the 1930s public education was widespraad throughout Europe. There were some poor countries where education opportunities were limited, not only because of Government spending, but family ability to support the education of older children. Large nunbers of girls were also now going to school. Secondary and higher education still lagged for working-class boys and girls in general. Education had lagged in Tsarist Russiam but the new Soviet Government made it a priority. the other major totalitarian state, NAZI Germny, benefitted by the country's fine education system, but a range of NAZI policies danaged the system. This did not impavt the ciuntry in World War II, but would have in the future. Britain and France also had fine public education system. But throught the continent most children only pursued 8-year primary programs. Most children did not continue to secondary school. The European school systems were the best in the world, especially Germany, Britain, and France. Only America rivaled the European systems. The Great Depression dominated the 1930s. In America this ctually promited education. Many children decided to continue their education after finishing primary school because jobs were often unavailable even for adults. This does not sem to have had a similar impact in Europe where the ecomonies seem to have begun recovering earlier than in America. Children commonly dressed up for school, somewhat more casual dress was beginning to be seen. Few children wore uniforms to school, although there were some Soviet and NAZI schools that required uniforms. Unifoms were standard at British private schools. These uniforms also impcred chool wear in the stte system. Some Catholic schools in France also had uniforms. The smocks worn in France and Italy by boys and girls were somewhat like a uniform.

England

English boys continued wearing the same styles as they wore in the 1920s. Peaked caps, blazers, short trousers, and knee socks were widely worn. Few new school trends developed in the 1930s. The trends appearing in the 1930s continued. The Eton collar, so common before World War I, were much less common in the 1930s. A few conservative schools did continue to require them, in some cases just for formal dress. Most boys wore soft collars and neckties in the school colors. Sweater (jumper) styles varied, but the V-neck styles began to become widely adopted in the 1930s. Prep school boys commonly wore closed toe-sandals which began to be referred to as school sandals. Most prep schools required short pants and even public schools and state secondary schools began required them for their junior forms. A few public schhools introduced them for boys of all ages, including the senior boys. State elementary schools did not require uniforms A reader sends us this portrait from his grammar school in 1937. He explains, "You see considerable variation at most grammar schools in the 1930s. This lack of uniformity continued until the late 1940s - find attached a detail from a 1937 year picture from my own grammar school. It's not until the 1950s that the standard cap/blazer uniform becomes de rigeur (at least in my own school)." Many schools did require the boys wear the school cap. The tie was also commonly a uniform item, although as seen here, the boys were not always required to werar it.

France

French children still commonly wore smocks. In the the 1930s we see cboolwear comtinuing to be more casual amd most notably womewhat fewer smocks. We akso begiun to see more ariety in the smocks. Most of the bys wote short pants. Some older boys from fashionable families may have worn knickers, but there were a small minority.

Germany

fter the NAZIs seized power in 1933, totalitarian principles were applied to all aspects of education. Private schools were taken over or closed. Great emphasis was attached on racial "science" in NAZI education and this was quickly introduced into the curriculum. NAZI ideology and physical-military training became other important aspects of the school program. Many teachers embraced the new Germany, but others were fired or left teaching. It is difficult to assess the relative importance of the two groups. It is known that many teachers were fired or replaced with political hacks during 1933-35, but HBC has no details on the numbers. Some of the best educators fled abroad. The quality of German education, once the leading system in Europe, declined. Again, however, it is difficult to assess this in quantitative terms. German boys continued wearing short pants to school with both knee socks and long stockings. Suits were less common than in the 1920s. We still see boys wearing sailor suits to school at the beginning of the decade. A good example is an unidentified secondary school. We see far fewer sailor suits by the end of the decade. The NAZIs looked on them as too middle class for the unified Reich thst Hitler was building.

Italy

Many Italian children also wore smocks. we have some inormation on several Italian schools during the 1930s.

Soviet Union

The 1930s were the peak of the Stalinist era and the most deadly decade, a least for Stalin killing Soviet people. It was at this time the NKVD generted Ukranian Famine and the Great Purges. This amounted to a massive economic effort to expand heavy industry, limiting production of consumer goods including food and exploting the agrcultural sector to the maximum. The Furst Five Year Plan (1928-32) was a major expamsion of heavy industry, but there as enormous waste of resources in the Soviet economy. And collectivization waa a disaster. Stalin thought that mechaization and socialist organization (collectivivization) would incease agricultural harvests. In fact, production plumeted and never fully recovered. Living standards declined in rural area, in part due to colletiviaztion and in part due to Stalin's decision to diect availabl esources to the urbabn proleterit and industrialization. As a result, people stuck in the new collective farms wanted to move into the cities. This could not be allowed, because of the potential impact on food production. A system of internal passports prevented the peopole in the collectivefarms from leacing, essoebtially a new system of serfdom. Now individuals could get permission to leave for such purposes as education, but for the most part the collective farm workers were frozen in place and the children provided with a limited education--just like the serfs. Thus was an exception to the gernerally Soviet policy of expanding educational opportunity. We do not yet have many Soviet school portraits from yhe 1930s. We see the children mostly wearing their own clothing and not uniforms. Fashionable clothing and consumer goods were not a regime priority. Stalin was in total control during the 1930s, including the Second (1933-37) and Third (1938-41) Five Year Plans. He used the NKVD to terrorie the Soviet people. Millions were murdered. Other millions were fed into a greatly expanded Gulag. This is well documented, less well documented is what happened to the children. Niormally fathers were arrested first, but mothers often soon followed. Even family were often afraid to take in these children. They wre placed in orphanages where they received inferior images. Some were often arrested once they became adults.

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Created: 10:23 PM 9/3/2022
Last updated: 9:51 PM 9/4/2022