Romeo and Juliet

The  English  comprehensive  essays the  class was  expected  to read  and inwardly digest were painful to say the  least.  Mondays we would read  the selected  essay aloud  from  the  booklet, Wednesdays there would be a test on the content and Fridays a spelling test.  It was obvious from the test results that the class didn’t understand the  essays, not surprising when you  took into account that they lived on a tiny Island in the Caribbean and the stories were for the most part set in England.

One day the comprehensive essay was about the life of William  Shakespeare.  After reading the essay aloud I asked the class if they had any questions.  “No Miss” was the answer, as  it  had  been  for the  previous  essays they  had  obviously not  understood.  I said, “ you MUST have questions, you always say you understand and then on Wednesdays you all fail the test!  Tell me what it is about these stories that you don’t understand”.  One brave soul put up  his hand and  I  eagerly  pounced.  Finally, a question!!  “Miss”, he  said, “What  a  shack spear is?”  It took me a moment to realize what he was asking and then it clicked.  The class had never heard of William Shakespeare, never read Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet or A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

A few days later a sign was posted in the window of the corner grocery store announcing that the movie being shown on Saturday night would be Romeo and Juliet.  Be still my heart!  I went to the Headmaster and asked for permission to take Form 4B to see the movie, and he agreed as long as I paid for their entrance myself  (25 cents EC, about 10 cents US) and that they wore their school uniforms.

Such excitement!  I spent the rest of the week telling Form 4B the story of Romeo and  Juliet so  that they would have an idea of what  was  happening when the movie started to roll. Most of the students had never been to see a movie and were almost feverish in their anticipation …. back then there were no  televisions  and  of  course no computers  so  this excursion to  the movies  was a real treat for them.

The students gathered outside the theatre, spanking clean and dressed in their school uniforms, white shirts with black pants for  the boys and black skirts for the girls.  We filed into the theatre and I got them settled  into  the incredibly uncomfortable metal seats provided.  White sheets sewn together formed  the screen, with a reel to reel projector in the back.

The room went dark and the projector started to roll.  The audience went wild before the movie even started, talk about audience participation!  The sound was too  loud and  also quite  distorted but  I could tell that the music  was not the theme from Romeo and Juliet.  The scene on the screen was confusing as well, a horse galloping across a desert???  As the horse got closer I could see that  there were two people riding bareback, not  something  I  recalled  being part of the Romeo and Juliet story.  I heard screams and laughter and suddenly realized that not only were the riders bareback, they were also buck naked and screwing on the back of the horse!  “Form 4B, we are out of here!” I screamed, but I could not be heard amidst the rest of the screamers.  I had to grope in the dark  and  try to  grab  my students, students who all desperately wanted to stay and watch the movie.  What a night!  I  had managed to  take Form 4B to see  a  Chinese porno movie called “Romeo and Juliet”.

They learned something that night.  They found out what a shack spear is!