Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-11-08
IN A FRENCH SCHOOL
tsi
Two Little American Boys
Face a ewsSsystem.
SURE TO BE sHOMESICK
WEAR UNIFORMS AND ARE
WATCHED EVERY MINUTE.
Simplicity in Food and Every Other
Detail is a Prominent Feature
Of the Rule.
SURE TO BE sHOMESICK
pec,al Correspondence of The Evening Star.

Special Correspondence Of The Evening Star
PARIS. October 20, 1902
American parents of my acquaint ance
have Just placed their two little boys in
French boarding schools. They will grow up
unusually well-instructed boys, ready mind
ed, self-possessed and wonderfully polite
but they will not have good time.
The French "potache'' is something we
have not in America. He is only a boy
from six to sixteen years of age; but he is
at once high-school boy, colIegian and uni
versity student all rolled into one from the
beginning.
In France unless he has been such a
"potache he can all his life be nothing
higher than shop clerk or day laborer.
He cannot be physician or horse doctor,
or druggist or druggists clerk or lawyer or
simple notary, or army officer or civil engi-
neer, or school teacher, or even a RESPONSE
BILE commercial employee, unless he has pass
ed the proper university examinations And
from his first day at the boarding school,
though he be only six years DID, the boy is
on his way to these examinations
In Paris those who know them will, now
twice a week, see these two little American
boys "out walking" 1t makes a strange
sight Far down the avenue of the Champs
Elysees you hear shutting of many feet
not very well in step, and a low buzz of
alf-forbidden conversation. Down the ave-
nue. they come, some fifty or a hundred
boys, led by religious or lay teachers: mas
tiers and inspectors follow at the sides and
rear Of the procession.
The whole bunch is dressed alike-in
dark blue uniforms enlivened by brass but
tons. They walk two by two. The teachers
walk them through the interesting parts of
Paris. Often they meet other punches, -
but they do not stop moment. Thursday
afternoons you will meet a dozen such
long lines Of boys in blue, from six to six
teen years-all walking in decorous ranks,
on their "hygienic promenade"
Who are these boys? Are they strangers
from the country or towns far away? No;
they are Partisan school boys and their
parents may be living just around the cor
ner. 1t is the continual wonder of foreign
ers that there should be so many college
boys in France, so young in age, and that
SO many parents should rid themselves of
the care of their children by keeping them
at boarding school fromstNfto sixteen years
of age. -
These boarding schools are of three kinds:
% Most important IN number and in
fluence are those run by the French gov
eminent Itself; for 1t is to the professors of
these that all examinations are intrusted
~ The private or free" schools not free
In the money sense, but rather left free to
teach by the government. These are
mainly religious schools, patronized by
wealthy and conservative people The bows
here are supposed to be better fed, more
Ing and fashionable f'extras'' than In the
state schools. Some even take the boys out
horseback riding twice a week, so that
reputation is found opposite a handsome
figure in the quarterly accounts.
() In the city, around 1.-The more cele-