The Calvert School Correspondence course Mac and I chose for Vanessa and Rachel was impressively well-rounded, providing them with a good education outside the walls of a formal school setting. The lesson plans were straightforward and therefore easy to follow, and the materials provided by the organization were excellent. I had been somewhat sceptical about the “correspondence” part of the course, trust in the local postal service did not come easily, but I cannot recall a time when classes were delayed due to a lack of mail.
During the winter months life was hectic, and I was too busy to teach the girls. Pat Wilson’s entry into our lives was therefore a God-send, and I will always be grateful to her. A retired school teacher, she came to the Island as a Bequia Mission volunteer but devoted her mornings to Vanessa and Rachel. Mrs. Wilson was a kind woman with the patience of a saint, and I don’t know what I would have done without her help between Christmas and Easter. She was an excellent teacher and the children adored her – Mac and I were extremely fortunate that she was willing and able to “step into the breach”.
The children grew quickly, and serious thought had to be given about the future when it came to their education. Mrs. Wilson felt they needed the interaction of other students, and while teaching Vanessa and Rachel at home with the Calvert School course was convenient for us, we realized she was right. At one point I had enrolled the girls in Brownies to get them involved in a social activity involving other children, but they didn’t like marching about in itchy woolen hats in the tropical heat and I couldn’t fault them for that! Another consideration was the teaching, primary grades were one thing, high school courses would be a different kettle of fish. Mac wanted to send the girls to private school in Canada but that notion was pie-in-the-sky, we could barely make our mortgage payments in the off-season let alone finish building our house, and private schools were not cheap!
We decided to enroll Vanessa and Rachel in the Bequia Anglican Primary School, where they could attend Junior 5 for the year and write the Common Entrance Exam. This all-important exam determined the fate of young students; those who did well qualified for the better schools in the country, those who did poorly were destined to either attend school on Bequia or stop going to school altogether. Decades later I realize how daunting this must have been for the children; for a few years they had learned only American history and geography, now they would be expected to know what their local classmates had been taught over a five-year period. Uniforms were bought along with the requisite hair ribbons, and at the ages of 10 and 11 Vanessa and Rachel entered the Junior 5 classroom. They were excited to be going to a real school, Mrs. Wilson had been right when she said they needed the interaction of other children. Each day they came to the Pizzeria for lunch, often bringing a new friend or two, and I was relieved to see that they were happy. They did well at the school, and although nervous about writing the Common Entrance Exam they excelled, making them eligible for the Girls’ High School as well as St. Joseph’s Convent School on the mainland.