Greenspond
Robert Dyer arrived in Newfoundland in 1839 to begin his twenty-year career as N.S.S. school master in Greenspond, Bonavista Bay, which he recorded almost daily in his diary. Dyer taught in a Church of England school system at a time when the Church, and not the state, played a central role in the development and delivery of the curriculum. Dyer worked in a single-room school that frequently accommodated more than 100 pupils of all ages and grade levels. Education was not free, most people had to pay subscriptions to the teacher for his salary and maintenance of the school. However, many families in Newfoundland during this period were poor and often could not pay. In these cases, the teachers salary was supplemented by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts and aid also came from the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. Education in Newfoundland faced many obstacles, such as irregular attendance. Dyer notes a number of reasons for absenteeism in his diary – some older children worked in the fishery during the spring and summer, others moved inland with their families each winter to take part in the logging industry, and bad weather frequently kept students at home. Poverty was another major problem for families that could not afford school fees or adequate clothing for their children. The Newfoundland School Society and Robert Dyer, along with his wife Mrs. Elizabeth Dyer maintained a very successful elementary school in Greenspond for all boys and girls ranging in age from about 3 to 16. The children at Greenspond were usually advanced in their lessons and the school always had a large attendance. In 1844, for example, there was an average attendance of 103 children and by May 1847, 119 girls and 110 boys were recorded on the attendance, a total of 229 students. In 1850 Robert Dyer recorded in his diary that a visiting judge, Judge Des Barres, had claimed that the school in Greenspond was the "largest in the island". In 1852 Dyer recorded an attendance of 283, shortly after, Dyer made a request for an infant school, and in 1854 the number on the books for the infant school was 300. The Rev Vicars inspected the school on August 28, 1856 and found 109 infants under the care of a school mistress, Miss Oakley.
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