When looking at the school photos I have to note a couple of things.
firstly the quality of the material around the classroom is clearly not
what we would expect today. The printed pictures are of a quite different
"feel" to the 90s - but let's not forget that these classrooms are in a
country that is less than a decade from WW2 - I imagine that the money was
not available for classrooms the way it was in later decades. Perhaps
there was not the overall technology either where printing is concerned.
It is interesting to see that there is a visual complexity to the printed
material which is lacking in today's wall decoration - which tends towards
visual simplicity and bright colours. Interesting to note the "homemade"
quality of the dolls houses, perhaps made by the teacher.
I also wonder where the school uniforms are - where I grew up in the 50s
all the schools had uniforms. I'm not clear where Middletown is but
perhaps it is a regional thing?
Look at the little girls hair - mostly short with (awful I think) bows. I
remember many of the girls in my school wearing them and I think their
continuing popularity into the later 50s came with nylon ribbon which did
not require ironing. I remember that the girls thought the braids of some
of the classmates were hopelessly old fashioned. I wonder if the trend of
short and bowed hair came from the mothers who had lived through the
austerity of the war. All the children are those of parents who would
probably have been young adults during the war.
Even though I am a historian it is really difficult to look at these photos
apart from my own feelings about school! Just to add a different dimension
to the discussion.
Liz
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