Figure 1.--This is the CE1 class at the Ecole Saint Joseph, in 1957. The children all seem to be wearing casual shirts with short pants and sandals. The only exception is one boy who wears a bib-front romper. Although it is difficut to tell, some of the boys appear to be wearing smocks. |
This Colonial French school in Tunisia was located at Ferryville. It was the Ecole Saint Joseph, a primary school. The name suggests that it was a Catholic school, but we are not sure. The school was a boys' school, unless there were separate classes for boys and grls in the school.
A French reader tells us, "Public schools practicly never were named after a saint. Thus St. Joseph's was surely a Catholic school. Also the name St. Joseph (a male saint) is normaly chosen for a Catholic boy' school with priests as teachers. Female saints are chosen for girls school, often with a mixed maternelle, with nuns as teachers. In this photograph, the boys look to be wearing their normal day-to-day garments. They do not look especialy well dressed. The children were often not informed in advance that the photographer was coming.The photograph here is a CE1 class. The children would be 7 or 8 years of age, depending if it was taken at the beginning or end of the school year. French children at the time began school at age 6 in Cours Préparatoire CP). The children at age 7 they began Cours Elémentaire (CE1). This school photograph was taken in 1957. The children all seem to be wearing casual shirts with short pants and sandals. The only exception is one boy who wears a bib-front romper. Another boy seems to be wearing a smock. A reader writes, "I think more than one boy is wearing a smock. If you look directly behind the boy in the front row who is wearing a smock, that boy too is wearing a
front closing smock. Also back row 4th from the left is a boy who seems to be wearing a back closing smock (though it is hard to be certain) In the middle row (6th from left, 5th from right is a boy who is wearing a back closing smock (pretty sure of that one) and middle row second from right (least certain) seems to be wearing a front closing smock."
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