Teen-age pregnancy was (and still is) a problem on Bequia and my sister Mary was determined to start a class dealing with birth control at the high school. The majority of the students would not be furthering their education past form 5 but far too many were dropping out as early as form 3 due to pregnancy. Mary decided to call the class “Health Science”, a more benign name for birth control.
Form 4B sat to attention when Mary and I told them what would be taught that day. There was of course a lot of nudging and giggling but an element of curiosity too. No-one had ever spoken to these young people about sex and how to go about preventing unwanted pregnancies and they were all ears.
Mary started out by describing the different methods of birth control. She outlined in detail the condom, the IUD, birth control pills, the coil and the rhythm method. There may have been others mentioned ( abstinence perhaps!!??) that I can’t recall but you get the gist. Mary of course had no text-books but had spoken to the Island nurse at length and was well prepared.
When she had finished speaking Mary asked the class if they had any questions about the methods of birth control she had described. One young fellow raised his hand and asked, “Miss, de Can Dome. Dat de same ‘ting as a campost heap?” She replied, “For heaven’s sake, what does a compost heap have to do with a condom?” His reply of “Me ain’t know Miss” showed Mary that she had her work cut out for her.
She divided the class into seminar groups, another new experience for the students. Each group was assigned a method of birth control and told to prepare an oral presentation. The Island nurse had agreed to provide samples if possible, and was also willing to help the students understand the birth control methods assigned to them. The class had never heard of nor ever prepared an oral presentation, and seemed quite excited about the prospect of standing at the front of the classroom like a teacher.
Presentation day finally arrived and the condom was first on the agenda. The spokesperson for the group started the introduction and was quite impressive, he really got off to a fantastic start: “Ladies and Gentlemen, I am here today to talk to you about the Can dome”. Things started to slide downhill after that …. He pulled from his pocket the BIGGEST condom I have ever seen (where the nurse found a black condom I have no idea!) and talked about how it could stretch and how it could blow up like a balloon. He never did mention how it could be used to prevent a pregnancy and it was quite obvious he didn’t understand what it was for.
Sigh. Mary did indeed have her work cut out for her!
