During the month of September I always think of the teachers and students who head back indoors for the fall as they go back to school. It has been a few weeks for students in Newfoundland, but in British Columbia the first day has been delayed due to a labour dispute and consequential teacher's strike.
Yesterday, just as this conflict was finally resolved, I came across these wonderful class photographs from the 1940s of young pupils in Rocky Harbour, Newfoundland. The top photograph is a grade 2 class, and the bottom is grade 1. Right now I am thinking about all the young kids who are just starting school for the first time, and the teachers in B.C. who've had a late start to their teaching year.
I wonder what it was like to be a student back then. Or a teacher for that matter...some of these kids look like trouble.
Special thanks to Charlie Payne of Winterhouse Brook, and the Town of Woody Point, for donating these photographs to the MUN's Digital Archives Initiative. Over the next few weeks a collection of close to 500 photos like the ones above will be made accessible online. I will post links to the collection as the work gets done.