Figure 1.-- This primary school class is unidentified. It looks to us like a 1st grade class somewhere in the North. We would guess in the late 1940s. Note how jeans are beginning to become popular. The different reaction of the childrem clearly seen on yheir faces is facinating.

There were some major chronological changes during the the 1940s decade at both primary and secondary schools. Some were related to the outbreak of World war II (1939) and American entry into the War (1941). At the turn of the 1940s, many primary boys were wearing short pants, especially the younger boys. We also see some knickers. By the end of the decade both short pants and knickers were rare and most boys, even the younger boys were wearing long pants. The decline of knickers was understandable, it was an observable trend in the 1930s. We are less sure as to why short pants declined in popularity. The trends toward casual clothing at school continued in the 1940s. And jeans by this time were becoming very common in primary schools, but not in the secondary schools (high school). More children continued to enroll in high schools. While increasingly popular in primary schools, jeans were not allowed in many high schools. While I don't recall seeing short pants at my school, the photograph record shows that at many schools some younger boys did wear shorts. This varied from school to school, primarily on a chronological and regional basis. For some reason we do not fully understand, we see many more boys wearing shorts in the early 1940s, but fewer in the later-40s. And we see more boys wearing shorts in the South as wall as California. This was both play and casual shorts as well as short pants suits, very few boys by the time were wearing suits to school. Quite a few boys have suspenders. The girls mostly wear dresses, a few wear suspender skirts. One seems to be wearing pants, at the time rather rare.

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Created: 9:35 PM 8/21/2022
Last updated: 10:21 AM 4/28/2023