Figure 1.--This photograph shows an unidentified Argentine rural school in the early-1920s. Clearly smocks were becoming standard schoolwear, but apparently not mandatory. Also there was no one single mandatory or accepted style. We see a lot of lab coats (dentales), but there are also the standard European stle (guadapolvo). We also se colored smocked, although white was clearly the dominant color. Rural areas tend to be the last to adopt the latest fashions or Government regulations, but clearly white smock were becoming standard schoolwear.

We notice an increasing number of Argentine children wearing school smocks in the 1920s. Even in rural schools the children, both boys and girls, were wearing smocks. Rural areas tend to be the last to adopt the latest fashions or Government regulations. The smocks at state schools, however, were not yet mandatory. An Argentine reader writes, "... to make it mandatory would imply denying access to children who did not wear them and that was something that the school system could not afford to do." Here we think our Argentine reader means that it school authorities were no willing to adopt uniform regulations out of concern over denying access to many children from low-income families. Parents' associations began distributing smocks for free to needy families. This helped to further establish the smock as standard schoolwear. We notice different styles being worn by both boys and girls. There was no one, single mandated or accepted style. Not all the smocks were white, but his was the dominant color.

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Created: 9:23 PM 8/26/2017
Last updated: 9:23 PM 8/26/2017