Figure 1.--Here we see two French children, a boy and a girl, suitably dressed and exhibiting impecable manners. President Charles de Gaulle is getting kisses from the children in 1965. A French reader tells us, "Beautiful image of ou Général Charles de Gaulle! The photograph was taken during a visit to a small provincial town. At the right one can see the local Mayor wearing his blue, white, red official sash belt." Interestingly, only a few years later, De Gualle would be driven from office by student riots that began in Paris.

A French 'garçon modèle' was expected to be obdedient and polite as well as clean and neat. Good manners in French are called 'L'éducation soignée des enfants'. And one describes a child respecting these rules as 'c'est un enfant à l'éducation soignée'. And a child with good manners and well dressed still to day one says ' C'est un enfant soigné ' or 'C'est un enfant modèle'. A French reader complains wissfully, "Unfortunetly there are not many French children today that fit this description and before long this expression may disappear." A French reader writes, "Personnaly I know well what were the good manners who were demanded to the children living into French bourgeoisie class. For us children this life was happy. And we hadn't no opinion about our outfits. I remember I liked my living condition. I know too, what was the life of the workers children. My father had an ordinary origin and had never been accepted by my mother family . My Grand-parents didn't like him." We notice several elements involved here, including obedience, nanners, speech, and clenliness/neatness.

Obedieance

The boy's caractere had a major role. A "garçon modèle" was expected to be obdedient and polite. Mothers expected the boy to be obedient, calm, well grommed. The boy was not suposed to be be quarreller, loud and disruptive. A Frenchvreader writes, "That was the case with my freind Daniel and myself and to day we are quite proud of that."

Mannerly

French garçons modèles were not only well dressed, but they were also very well behaved. A French reader who lived for a time in Austria tells us, "For the posterity I will speak about the good manners concerning the children from good families during the 1950s. It seems that is unknown by the new generation. In the 1950s when I grew up there were unwritten rules for children that they were none-the-less obliged to respect. The same was true in Austria where I lived for a time. Today all this is changed. Children today are treated like little kings. In 1950s they was a world for children and a world for adults and it was not possible to mix them. It is true also that the children had no on many topics, often including the selection of their clothes. The tree principal groups of rules were: 1) the child's behavior with the members of his family (at home); 2) the child's behavior with the persons outside his family or visiting friends and realtives; 3) the child's behavior at school for general teaching, music, or other activities. Special manners were not needed while playing with other children, except not to use swear words and not to fight. In Austria, as in France, there were variations and there were differences for boys and girls. Children were taught the rules at a very young age. They change with the age of the child. All the Austrian children respected these rules, probably they were getting strictly enforce as other aspects of the NAZI regime. [HBC tends to believe this more part of Germanic national character than NAZI influence on the family.] In France it was less complicated and the adult contacts with the children were more tender. In France we kiss often the children and the family gives them constant cuddles." A French reader tells us about trends in manners, "In France and in Austria " bonnes manières " were practically the same, perhaps even more often used inside the standard family than in France. Probably these rules were also used in others European countries as well. A large part of this education style comes from past traditions. My granmother was very attentive to manners and teaching the children. My parents were not really that concerned and me not at all. The modern society doesn't permit such manners to be easily taught. Now the small child in France is rather considered as a little king. In past generations a child under 5 years was not included in many family activities. He was treated like a baby without a personality an almost hiden. Myself I think babies and children should be given all the family attention they need."

Polite Speech

French ' enfants modèles ' were also expected to speak properly. The children were taught to speak clearly and to pronounce the best they could. The were expected to enunciate the vowels and consoles of the words very clearly. For instance they didn't say " mamman " but " maman ". A French reader tells us that in the past children were taught to use formal verb tenses when speaking to adults. In French there are two form s of "you", "vous" and "tu". This is the same in Spanish (usted/tu) and German (Sie/du). Here English is an exception. (There was such a word, "thou", now only found in the King James Bible. This rule was very important. Our reader tells us, "When I was boy, I was taught to say 'vous' to everybody except my parents, my nanny, and of course my friends. Inside the 'bonnes familles' or 'bourgeoisie' the people, the family staff have to say "vous" to the children except the nanny to her child. In the school, principaly in private school the teatchers still say 'vous'. In certain high family the children were obliged to say "vous" to their parents. This rule is still used sometime to day. When I visited a choir school in 2000, I spook with the heardmastor about the 'vous' or 'tu' when speaking to the boys. He told me that they decided to say 'tu' to the children, because boarding was already a difficult adjustment for them. It was decided that to create a more friendly boarding establishment, it was best not to be too formal with the "vous" usage .

Cleanliness and Neatness