On the Internet you can find the statement that until 1956, French schoolchildren were allowed to drink wine in the walls of an educational institution and that alcohol was even part of the canteens menu. We decided to check if this is so.

The story of an unusual assortment of French school canteens can be found on sitesdedicated to guilt, in blogs on the platform "Zen", On the site Pikabu and in Facebook. It is claimed that the students were allowed to drink for food to a half -liter of wine, cider or beer, as it was believed that these drinks would strengthen the body of adolescents and give them additional forces. And only in 1956 this practice was eliminated.

By the 1950s, the level of alcohol consumption in France reached frightening scale. According to the UN, in 1952 a resident of the country over 14 years old on average Drunk 138 liters of wine annually. In 1951, French statistics Countedthat one Frenchman accounts for 21 liters of pure alcohol per year (for comparison, in Italy this indicator in the same year was 9.2 liters, in the USA - 6.2 liters, in the UK - 5.9 l).

In 1954, the French government was headed by a socialist Pierre Mendes-Francewho immediately began to fight the immoderate use of alcohol in the country. At the end of the year he established The Supreme Committee for the Study of the Problems of Alcoholism, which since 1955 has launched a large -scale information campaign.

Mendes-France paid special attention to the use of alcohol among children. How Writes historian Stefan Le BraAt that time, parents often gave the children a flask of wine diluted with water to the school, and in the 1930s the state even welcomed this, urging the children to taste wine from an early age. Le Parisien gives a quote Be psychiatrist Suzanne Seren, who in the 1950s was alarming: “Many parents gave the children alcohol with them. Sometimes it was half a liter of wine, sometimes cider or beer-depending on the region. I myself witnessed a small drama in the Paris region: my parents insisted that the children take alcohol with them, the director refused. Then the parents decided that the children would drink wine before they go to school. The children came reddened, sweaty and slept almost all morning right in the lessons. ”

Mendes-France himself participated in the campaign: he demonstratively I drank only milk even at official techniques and, as an experiment, ordered schoolchildren to issue milk for free in several educational institutions. In 1955, his government resigned, but the Prime Minister in seven months in power managed to convince society of the need to combat excessive alcohol consumption.

On August 8, 1956, the French Ministry of Education released circular, completely forbidden to serve any alcoholic drinks to schoolchildren under 14 years of age in school canteens. Elder students were allowed to drink wine, but diluted with water and no more than 125 ml per meals. The use of light beer or light cider was also allowed. At the same time, parents, according to the document, had the right to ask their children not to give alcohol in school canteens at all.

Fully Forbidden Alcohol in schools only a quarter century later, on the initiative of the Minister of Education Alena Savari. In the circular of September 3, 1981 It was indicatedthat restrictive measures from now on concern lyceum students, that is, high school students: “Students are not supposed to give any alcoholic drinks, even if we are talking about wine diluted with water, beer or sidra. Permissible drinks are water, milk and fruit juice (grape or apple). ” The document separately notes that schoolchildren cannot bring alcohol with them and drink it for food.

Thus, in French schools in the 1950s, alcohol was really allowed. For high school students, a complete ban entered into force only in 1981.

Photo on the cover: France, School Canteen, 1930/Archives de Paris

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