Parlez-vous?

Among the free books on the shelf this year, a 1949 textbook.

Authors:

Sadly, water damage has warped the book and its classic end papers. In front, La France—

The map highlights each province's sights and production agricole—

In back—

Illustrations include many photos, with captions often adding the author's deux centimes worth.

Fishermen along the Seine don't have much hope of catching fish, but they enjoy the rest and the scenery.

Louis XVI in full splendor. A little less splendor might have saved his neck.

Author-illustrator Huebener apparently took the photos and wrote the captions. Their humor is of a piece with the cartoons he clearly relished drawing to illustrate lessons.

In this textbook, a jolly time seems usually to have been had.

Les élèves quittent l'école.

Something seemed familiar about this author's credentials and tone. Sure, the silly jokes reminded me of favorite teachers who took a similar approach; decades later, I still remember material via corny jokes cracked by those clever teachers. There was something else I couldn't quite put my finger on, not until starting to re-read Kate Simon's memoir, A Wider World. In the 1920s Simon had defied her immigrant father to attend a New York high school. Writing sixty years later, Simon found that,  English and music aside, she had no memory of most classes and teachers. Two German teachers were exceptions, and one of them was

... Dr. Huebner, who became one of the heads of language studies in the city's schools later on... [He] was beautiful, as precisely featured as a Gothic carving, but unlike those dour saints and knights, he smiled a lot, teaching us a good deal of German by way of songs and simpleminded jokes. So we sang and laughed and earned high Regents' Exam scores for Dr. Huebner.

The French textbook gives a good idea of that pedagogical approach. Even so, at least one student remained unimpressed by the good doctor's efforts.