|
HBC does not yet have much chronological information on chronological trends in Dutch schoolwear. Dutch boys are not known for wearing smocks, although HBC has note some Dutch boys wearing smocks and pinafores at the turn of the 20th century. Knee pants were common in the earky 20th ceentury. Boys in rural areas might wear wooden shoes. Sailor suits were popular school wear in the early 20th century. Dutch boys commonly wore short pants to school through the 1950s, often with knit sweaters. Graually boys began wearing shorter shorts and few older boys wore them. Dutch boys increasingly began wearing long pants by the 1980s and now dress in casual pan-European styles of jeans "T"-shirts and sweaters. A reader reports in 2002, "Elementary school age boys seemed to be rather neatly dressed. Their clothes looked somewhat traditional. Older boys in the large cities prefer denim and T-shirts."
Jan Steen provides us a wonderful depiction of "The Village School" about 1665. In this wonderfully cluttered style we are show what going to school at the time was like. We see teaching methods, clothing, school furnishing, as well as a range of artifacts.
We do not yet have much information on Dutch schools during the 19th century. We see some images from the late-19th century shiowing children wearing tradituinal outfits going to school. We do noth yhink this was very common at the time, but was probably common earlier in the 19th century. There were regional differences. The best known type of folk dress which came to be seen as a kind of national costume, came from the southern province of Volendam. We see these styles persisting in few isolated villages. We are not sure why some villages continued to persist with these styles. Tourism may be involved, even in the 19th century, but there may be another favtor. We even see these clothes being worn in the 20th century, but increasingly for tourists mostly by women. Styles in Dutch cities and towns were more like styles in Germany and Belgium, especially by the end of the century.
Dutch boys are not known for wearing smocks, although HBC has note some Dutch boys wearing smocks and pinafores at the turn of the 20th century. Kneepants were common in the early 20th ceentury. Boys in rural areas might wear wooden shoes. Sailor suits were popular school wear in the early 20th century.
After World War I, short pants replaced kneepants and kneesocks replaced long stockings.
Dutch boys in the 1930s appear to have worn mostly casual shirts and short pants to school, a least during the warmer weather. I'm less sure about the colder months. One reader send us a photograph of him at school in 1939. He wears a plaid shirt buttoned at the collar. Boys wore both knee socks and ankle shoes with shoes and sandals. A Dutch reader has provided us information on his school in the 1930s.
A HBC reader writes, "During the years 1940-45 when I went to school we were allowed to learn French and English also, besides Dutch and German. I am actually amazed
how little interference there was from the part of the German authorities with the curriculum of the Dutch schools. Of course, the Jewish teachers and students disappeared, but otherwise education proceeded as usual. There never were any "racial instructions" at our school during the German occupation of the Netherlands (1940-45). Also my sister, who went to another school, did not hear about it. Don't forget that the teachers were Dutch, they had no training in those matters and no desire to teach that stuff. Most of them were anti-German, but they had to be careful what they were saying in class. At my school there were several "Jeugdstormers", sons and daughters of Dutch NAZIs (Nationaal Socialistische Beweging--NSB), who could report people to the authorities--although I never heard that it happened. Most of the kids expressed their hatred for the German NAZIs openly and there always were a lot of debates and even fights at school. All of them survived the war, except the Jews, who were removed from my school in 1941. The deportations to the death camps began in mid-1942, but I knew nothing about the Holocaust at the time. In my school there were only three Jewish children. We only learned what happened after the war when we saw the horrible pictures of the concentration camps. We knew that the Jews were sent to Westerbork and from there to.......? But we had no idea that they were killed. It still is shocking after so many years. The period September 1944 untill May 1945 was the worst for us. The Allies had reached the Rhine, but because of the failure of Operation Market Garden at Arnhem, were uable to cross it and the Allied offensive stalled. The Dutch located north and east of the Rhine, like our town, had it really bad. We had nothing to eat any more, our clothes were worn out and our shoes kaput and sometimes we had no electricity or heat at school. In March the school closed and we were sent home. Food and clothes were scarce. We got textile coupons, but the stores were empty. My father made me a pair of 'sandals' from an old rubber tire. We wore the same clothes for months. Fortunately I still had a pair of indestructable brown
corduroy Scout shorts and a woollen pullover my grandma had knitted for me, although it was tight, since I kept growing in spite of the bad nourishment. Our town was finally liberated by the Canadians in May 1945." A Dutch reader remembers a German school during the occupation, "I remember the Deutsche Schule (German School) in Utrecht where the children of German citizens were being taught. Often I saw boys and girls in their Hitler Jugend and B Bund Deutscher M�dchen (BDM) in front of the school. That school closed in September 1944 when most of Hollands Nazi residents fled to Germany after the Battle of Arnhem."
We have very little information on Dutch school clothes during the 1950s. Dutch schools did not have uniforms, except pperhaps for a few private schools. We have, howwever, no information on such scjools at this time. Dutch boys commonly wore short pants to school through the 1950s, often with knit sweaters. The classroom photo here of what looks like a state primary school shows most of the boys wearing short pants with both kneesocks and ankle socks (figure 1). This looks to be a state school. Graually during the 1950s boys began wearing shorter shorts and few older boys wore them. We notice another photograph of boys wearing overcoats and suits, mostly long pants suits, in 1956. This looks to be a private school. One boy looks to be wearing a school cap.
We note an image from a Dutch primary school in 1963. Unfortunately we do not know the name of the school or the type of school. Presumably it is a public school. Only boys are pictured. Does that mean that Dutch schools or classes were still divideded by generder? The voys wear casyal shirts, many with sweaters. The shirts are all collared shirts, many with bold patterns. Some boys button them at the collars. There are no "T" shirts, but some boys wear striped polo shirts. All of the boys seem to wear short pants. One boy wears H-bar shorts. Several bous wear kneesocks, but mopst wear ankle socks. The boys wear both shoes and sandals. These boys are dressed very similarly to the 1950s image posted here (figure 1).
Dutch boys increasingly began wearing long pants by the 1980s and now dress in casual pan-European styles of jeans "T"-shirts and sweaters.
A reader reports in 2002, "Elementary school age boys seemed to be rather neatly dressed. Their clothes looked somewhat traditional. Older boys in the large cities prefer denim and T-shirts."
Related Chronolgy Pages in the Boys' Historical Web Site
[Main Chronology Page]
[The 1920s]
[The 1930s]
[The 1940s]
[The 1950s]
[The 1960s]
[The 1970s]
[The 1980s]
[The 1990s]
[The 2000s]
