Figure 1.--Here we see a small coed school in the early 20 century, perhaps 1904. It may be a small class and coed because it was from a small village. Perhaps it was a pribate school. It may be the village school in place called Mussy la Fosse, Coted'Or. I think that means a village located along the French Mediterrranian coast. Perhaps our French readers will know where this is. Here the girls, but not the boys wear smocks. This image shows how variable smock usage was at the time. |
We have found numerous French schools that we have been unable to identify. W prefer having the name of the school as we hope this will allow former students to provide us some details about their schools. Some of these school photographs are dated. Some are not. We can make general estimates as to when the photographs were taken, but of course that is not nearly as useful as actually knowing the date. We know where some of the schools are, but in most cases we do not know where the schools are. Hopefully our French readers may be able to identify some of these schools.
A HBC reader has mentioned a lovely little short story by Alphonse Daudet, entitled "La Derniere Classe" ("The Last Class"). It was published as part of Daudet's Lettres de Mon Moulin ("Letters From My Mill"). The story is set in Alsace. It describes a French teacher telling his class that he was being replaced and this will be the last day that their class will be taught in the French language. An indifferent schoolboy comes to class on the last day that instruction will be given in French. It is 1870-71 and the Franco-Prussian War has ended with a overwealming German victory. German must now be used in the Alsatian schools. The schoolboy enters class a bit late (his custom!) and listens as the schoolmaster relates the sad news of the German victory to the class. The schoolmaster's praise of the French language
and literature awaken a belated patriotism and love of French in this errant but goodhearted pupil.
A French painter provides a look inside a typical French provincial state elementary school in 1880. The boys here are all depicted as wearing black smocks.
The Third Republic, as part of its educational reforms, created nursery schools for children from 2 to 6 years of age. HBC believes that these were the first nursery schools in Europe. They were coeducational and the children wore similar light-colored smocks.
Boys at this typical French primary school wore smocks. Unfortunately only one image is available with three boys. HBC is not sure if this is a representative sample.
HBC is unsure if this is a state or primary school as the boys, unlike most French schools, wear uniforms--although of various types. .HBC is not sure what type of school the boys go to. It looks to be a primary school, but I am not sure if it is a private or state school. The boys wear military-styled uniforms, I'm not sure at this stage whether the wearing of uniforms was more common ar state or private schools. It could be a military school, but if this was the case, I don't think a boy would have been allowed to wear a sailior suit rather than the school uniform. As with most French schools at the time, the school was a single gender school.
Many of the younger boys in secondary schools, like the elementary school boys, wore smocks. I'm not sure, however, if these are the older primary students or the younger secondary students. Given the apoints in the classroom I think it might be a junior class in a secondary school. It is an all boys school. HBC believes that most French schools until after World War II (1939-45) were single gender schools, but there were some coed schools as well. While the source identifies this photograph only as ecole de garçons, it does indicate that it was located at Ault (Somme).
Here we see a small coed school in the early 20 century, perhaps 1904 (figure 1). It may be a small class and coed because it was from a small village. Perhaps it was a pribate school. It may be the village school in place called Mussy la Fosse, Coted'Or. I think that means a village located along the French Mediterrranian coast. Perhaps our French readers will know where this is. Here the girls, but not the boys wear smocks. This image shows how variable smock usage was at the time.
These boys are celebrating in Alsace after graduating from primary school and receiving their school certificate. Pressumably these boys all went to state elementary schools. I'm not sure that private schoolboys would have been imcouraged to mix freely with boys attending state schools. The source identifies the children as from the écoles d'Alssace.
These boys attended a private school utilizing the experimental methods of noted French educator Célestin Freine who was concerned about the education of working class children. I'm not positive about the date of this photograph, but would speculate that it was taken in the 1930s. The boys at this school wore a variety of clothes, including smocks, short pants, and long pants. There apparently were no school rules and it was up to the parents as to what the boys wore.
Here we see what looks like a French class. The ladyseems rather over dressed for a tezcher. All we know about the photograph is that it was taken in Paris during 1937. The boys all wwar suits which also seems a bit formal for a primary school. They may have gone to private school. We don't know the
name of the school, but it obviously was a boys' school. I've thought I had archived this image earlier, but can't find it at this time. The boys seem to be about 9 or 10 years old, which would be the equivalent of the 5th grade in America. All of the boys wears short pants with knee socks, most wear suits while a few wear sweaters. Some wear shirts with neckties. This seems more formal than the ways boys dressed at a state primary.
A photograph of the boys at a primary school in 1947 show them receiving their prizes for superior work. The boys wear a wide variety of clothes, including smocks, sailor suits, and suits. Boys wear both shoes and sandals. Most boys wear ankle socks, but a few boys wear white kneesocks.
We believe this is a French school, although we are not sure. All we have is a photograph probably taken in the 1950s. There is a basic uniform so it may be a Catholic school. The uniform appears to be blue-green shirts, black or dark blue short pants, and white socks. We have since learned that the boys come from a suburban Paeis school, but are members of a choir,
A French HBC reader has provided us a portrait of his Paris school class in 1962. The childrn are 12-13 years old, just beginning scondaruy school from their primary school. There is no school uniform. The classes are coeducational. The children simply wear their ordinary clothes. The boys wear a wide varity of shirts, both long and short sleeved. Most are colored, but not patterened. There are regular shirts as well as Some of the boys wear short pants, none of them with kneesocks. One boys wears high-top sneakers and one girl does also. Another boy wears sandals. All the girls war dresses.
Here we have an unidentified French primary school. From the look of the building in the back ground we might say that it was a provincial school in southern France. We do know that the full school portrait was taken in 1981. The electrical connection looks surprisingly primitive for France in the 1980s. The weather seems a little chilly and the children are outfitted in a wide range of colorful sweaters. Most of the boys seem to wear lng pants, but some boys wear shorts pants as well
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