24 Hours in the Life of a Young Breton in 1900

Breakfast was the first meal of the day before leaving for school. For the richest children, it consisted of a bowl of hot chocolate or coffee, while the poorest ate a bowl of soup with bread.

Five days per week on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays, children walked to school in clogs or galoshes, carrying a canvas bag or a basket, or, for children from the wealthiest families, a real satchel.
There were no classes on Thursdays, Sundays, or on public holidays.
Vacations were on Easter and during the threshing season, i.e., in summer: in August and in September.
Although education had been compulsory and secular since the Jules Ferry Laws of 1881, and each commune and hamlet had been required to have its own school since the law of 1883, attendance at school and the regular presence of schoolchildren often depended on a family's social level and income. While eight out of 10 children between the ages of six and 13 went to school in the towns and cities, work on the farm often took priority over school in rural areas.

Girls and boys wore smocks for school. These provided protection for their clothes. A boy's suit cost between 40 and 60 francs in 1914, i.e., half of a worker's wages.
The uniform also helped put everyone on an equal footing.

The classes were single-sex and had an average of 51 students between 1880 and 1900.

Heating was usually provided by a wood stove, and children were asked to contribute by bringing a log.

The schoolteachers' authority was indisputable and all types of sanctions or punishments were used: standing in the corner, extra exercise, copying lines, and wearing a dunce's cap. Some teachers also used corporal punishment, such as hitting the child's fingers with a ruler or using a whip.

Speaking Breton was not tolerated in French schools and any children using their mother tongue were given a token known as a "symbol" or "cow." This was an item (e.g. a clog, piece of wood or slate, potato, small carved pig, bone, pebble, bolt, etc.) which the children were forced to wear around their neck or pin to their buttonholes.
The holder of the "symbol" tried to pass it onto another child caught speaking Breton. The pupil in possession of the symbol was punished before leaving school.

The teachers also knew how to reward pupils by giving good marks, writing letters of satisfaction to parents, and awarding crosses or books to the best pupils of the week.

Children had three recesses a day. During recess, girls played hopscotch and skipped, while boys played marbles, leapfrog, traditional ball games, or the regional disc-throwing game "galoche."

Few children in the countryside went home for lunch. They ate in the cafeteria (refectory) when there was one and if their parents could afford it. Usually a meal of hot soup and bread.
Children would also bring their own meals: bread with butter or molasses, a piece of bacon, and sometimes some wine to drink. They ate in the playground, the street, or in the classroom if the weather was bad.

Once a week after class, two or three students took turns to stay behind to clean and tidy up.

After getting home from school, the children had to help out on the farm, looking after the animals and fetching water.
The teacher gave children very little homework, given the help that they had to provide, their dark houses, and the fact that their parents could neither read nor write. When homework was given, it was limited to multiplication tables, La Fontaine's Fables, and the administrative centers of each "department" (administrative subdivisions of France).

Some children never went to school, and instead had to work all day to help their parents provide for the whole family.
These children working in sardine or brush factories, such as in Saint-Brieuc, often came from large families or had lost their father or mother.

The whole family came together for dinner.
Children, women, and young boys ate on blanket chests or hearthstones, while the men ate at the table.
The evening meal consisted of black buckwheat, millet, or oats, soup, rye, or barley bread, potatoes, pork (for families living on the land), fish (for those living by the coast), butter, cider, and milk.
Crêpes and Breton galettes were eaten once a week, usually on Fridays.

After dinner, everyone gathered around the fireplace to spend the evening. During winter, people took the opportunity to spin wool, weave baskets, carve spoons or distaffs, or do some knitting or sewing.
It was also during these evenings that storytellers told tales and Breton legends that fascinated and terrorized the children and adults alike.

They slept in enclosed or semi-enclosed beds, singles or bunkbeds for large families. These provided protection from the cold and separation from other sleepers.
The bedding consisted of a thick straw mattress with a large bag of oat balls on top. The richest enjoyed mattresses made from sheep's wool and feather-filled duvets.