Figure 1.-- Here the children at a Parisian maternelle in 1956 are practicing balancing things on their head. The teachers presumaly thought this was a good exercise to help develop theirsense of ballance. The children look to be about 5 years old. We see boys wearing both rompers (barboteuses) and smocks.

Drill and exercises have also varied by school level. We don't see maternelle children during drill, but the maternelle was mostly a 20th century development. We see the teachers rather than drill, involving the children in all kinds of fun exercises to develop their nodies, muscular control, and ballance. Here we see maternelle children trying to ballance itemns on their heads. We do see children in primary schools doing drill. Schools in the 19th century often featured drill as a form of both physical exercise and discipline. French schools were primarily academic in orientation, but many schools also had drill. Sport was still developing as a major activity in the 19th century, at first priomarily in Britain. Few schools had the grounds needed for sports. Drill continued into the 20th century when modern physical education programs were developed. We do not see drill at American and British schools much after World War I (1914-18). Drill sees to have continued in French schools somewhat longer. Here a factor seems to have been that many French schools lacked gyms or sports field. French schools appear to have been more narrowly academic than American and British schools. On the previous page we see French boys doing drill and exercise in 1939. I'm not sure what type of school this was or where it was located. Presumably it is the building in the background. It looks to be quite a large school. You would think there would have been a gym.

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Created: 5:05 AM 1/9/2013
Last updaed: 5:40 AM 1/9/2013