Ink For French School Children

[lgsoltek]

From J. Herbin:

 

Bleu myosotis (“Forget-me-not” blue): named after the flower of that very same name. Based on the famous legend, a knight and his lady were taking a walk along the river. He bent over to pick up a flower for his lady but lost his balance with the weight of its armor and fell into the river. While drowning he threw the flower at his lady screaming “Forget-me-not”.

Thanks to that legend the myosotis had become the symbol of memory and remembrance. The bleu myosotis is also the closest color to the standard and traditional blue ink used by every French pupil.

 

Violette pensée (Pensive violet): this color is also a flower from the very same name.

Since Napoleon I, French pupils used violet ink color, the least expensive color. This ink was made of methyl-violet, also used to disinfect wounds.

[lgsoltek]

And from Wikipedia:

 

L'encre violette
Jusqu'au début des années soixante-dix, l'enseignement de l'écriture à l'école primaire utilisait l'encre violette, préparée avec l'aniline, pour la raison que l'encre noire corrodait rapidement la pointe des plumes en acier utilisées par les maîtres et les élèves.

 

(My translation)

Until early 70s, violet ink made with aniline was used in writing class in primary school, because black ink would corrode the steel nib used by teachers and pupils very quickly.

[Serlo]

This is a very interesting thread indeed. I wonder what kind of ink the teachers used to mark their pupils' essays etc.

 

In Germany we were always required to use blue or black ink because the teachers are supposed to use red. If pupils were allowed to use purple ink then the red wouldn't stand out that much. Oh, by the way: green is also forbidden in Germany for teachers and pupils as this is the headmaster's colour (I wish it was the other way round: blue and black for students, green for teachers and red for the headmaster...).

 

P.S.: I am rebelling against these rules as I use purple ink to mark the students' homeworks but I have to use red ink if it comes to tests.

[tinkerteacher]

As I understand it, the mandatory use of purple fountain ink in French schools ended in the late '60s at the start of the infamous, and short lived, 'Bic Experiment' when modernising French bureacrats and right-wing politicians attempted to do away with the fountain pen and replace it with a 'state approved yellow Bic school ballpoint'.

 

Bic being a very French, and very successful, company, while Waterman was (and now is once again) an American company.

 

The Bic experiment failed miserably fortunately. However, while the fountain pens came back, the mandatory purple ink did not. Nowadays, I hear they use boring blue and black like all other Brussels subjects.

Edited July 11, 2015 by tinkerteacher

[Frank C]

This is a very interesting thread indeed. I wonder what kind of ink the teachers used to mark their pupils' essays etc.

 

In Germany we were always required to use blue or black ink because the teachers are supposed to use red. If pupils were allowed to use purple ink then the red wouldn't stand out that much. Oh, by the way: green is also forbidden in Germany for teachers and pupils as this is the headmaster's colour (I wish it was the other way round: blue and black for students, green for teachers and red for the headmaster...).

 

P.S.: I am rebelling against these rules as I use purple ink to mark the students' homeworks but I have to use red ink if it comes to tests.

 

I think that you should start an insurrection by using green!

[LeonW]

Looks like the "French Bic Movement" spilled over to South Africa for we never used Fountain Pens in Primary school. (for me since 1966)

 

Only yellow Bic Pens were available which I somehow still detest today.

[cnjackson]

I didn't go to a French school per say, but I did go to a Catholic school in southern Africa run by Jesuits, French and French Colonial Jesuits mostly, in the late '70s. There was a kind of 'cold war' at the school between the old school French priests and nuns who insisted we write with purple inks and the younger, non-French priests and nuns who allowed us (encouraged us in some subversive cases) to use more 'modern' colours like blue and black.

 

The purple school ink I used was made by Pilot, however, if I recall correctly.

 

Also, interestly, one of the monseigneurs who insisted we use purple ink was Vietnamese. I suppose the Vietnamese schools also used purple ink when they were part of the French colonial empire.

haha--this is a great story! so it looks like you sided with the Jesuits!

[cnjackson]

Ah, here is that old post with the links to the academic sources:

 

https://www.fountainpennetwork.com/forum/topic/83222-french-school-ink/

This was really helpful! Thank you!

[cnjackson]

From J. Herbin:

 

Bleu myosotis (“Forget-me-not” blue): named after the flower of that very same name. Based on the famous legend, a knight and his lady were taking a walk along the river. He bent over to pick up a flower for his lady but lost his balance with the weight of its armor and fell into the river. While drowning he threw the flower at his lady screaming “Forget-me-not”.

Thanks to that legend the myosotis had become the symbol of memory and remembrance. The bleu myosotis is also the closest color to the standard and traditional blue ink used by every French pupil.

 

Violette pensée (Pensive violet): this color is also a flower from the very same name.

Since Napoleon I, French pupils used violet ink color, the least expensive color. This ink was made of methyl-violet, also used to disinfect wounds.

Super interesting! Thank you for this addition!

[senzen]

Maybe it's a holdover from Napoleon, didn't he favor purple because of its royal connotations?

 

That would be green, as in Vert Impérial.

[Tasmith]

This is a very interesting thread indeed. I wonder what kind of ink the teachers used to mark their pupils' essays etc.

 

In Germany we were always required to use blue or black ink because the teachers are supposed to use red. If pupils were allowed to use purple ink then the red wouldn't stand out that much. Oh, by the way: green is also forbidden in Germany for teachers and pupils as this is the headmaster's colour (I wish it was the other way round: blue and black for students, green for teachers and red for the headmaster...).

 

P.S.: I am rebelling against these rules as I use purple ink to mark the students' homeworks but I have to use red ink if it comes to tests.

Fascinating thread!

 

I saw something recently that even German businesses use to use different color inks for each level of hierarchy when signing paperwork.

Edited July 12, 2015 by Tasmith

[cnjackson]

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this thread. A moment of curiosity led me to start it, and it opened up in many unexpected directions. I certainly know a lot more about the conditions in which French school children did some of their work in the mid-twentieth century than I did before.

 

As I learn more, I'll post here again.

 

In the meantime--thanks again to all!

 

Chris

[gordonhooker]

I have read the same thing but have no more substantial information than that. I know I read it almost 20 years ago because that's why I bought my bottle of Violette Pensee. I'm curious as to the validity as well because a friend of ours and her daughter are moving to France and it would be fun to get her daughter a nice fountain pen and some French ink that used to be used in the French schools as a going-away present. (I know, giving her French ink as she's leaving for France is like having her take coal to Newcastle, but it's a gesture, not a rational business decision)

 

And who says I'm rational now anyway?

 

So, any of our French community remember this or have other evidence? Are there requirements today for using fountain pens as I've heard there are still in Germany? Just curious.

 

You collect fountain pens as I do - so no decision regarding fountain pens and ink could be considered rational.

[gordonhooker]

Alas the ball-point pen (bic biro) experiment happened in most places and it stuck in many...

[gordonhooker]

Alas the ball-point pen (bic biro) experiment happened in most places and it stuck in many...