Daycares, kidnappings, twins and triplets.
This project explored it all.
Over the past few years, Curro Nelspruit decided to face the facts: South Africa has one of the highest rates of teenage pregnancy globally. Statistics have shown that nearly one in four girls fall pregnant before the age of 20. It is only so many times that educators can warn their students of unwanted and teenage pregnancies, about what to do and what not. Theory without practical implementation results in nothing.
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This school’s previous life orientation educators and Felicity Pienaar, current head of the subject, gave new life to the subject – in the form of butternuts.
“It’s really important to teach the learners the reality about it before they make a decision that will change the rest of their life,” Pienaar said, referring to the Butternut Project. “The purpose is to give the learners a better understanding of what it would look like if they fell pregnant during their teenage years.”
Each learner had to procure a butternut to be their baby for the duration for the project. They had to feed and clothe it, and basically take care of it as if it were their very own precious baby.
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She explained that they had to complete a written research assignment before their ‘due date’, which covered a variety of topics, from how much it costs to have a baby and buy all of the products they will need, to how many times a newborn wakes up through the night to be fed and changed. “It also looked at the health and emotional risks of teenage pregnancy for the mum and dad, as well as for the baby,” Pienaar said.
After finishing their written report, Pienaar did ‘gender reveals’ with the learners. “I had a tin with different scenarios written down on small pieces of paper, for example, ‘It’s a girl!’, ‘It’s a boy!’, ‘It’s twins!’ and so on.” The learners were allowed to choose their partners with whom they wished to experience the process. They could also have chosen to be single parents.
Pienaar said when they chose their ‘fate’ out of the tin, they were not allowed to swap it out or have a second try if they didn’t like what they got. “In real life, you don’t get to choose!” Pienaar joked.
To add even more obstacles to ‘parenthood’, some of the other learners, even teachers, kidnapped the butternut babies for ransom. To get rid of some responsibility, the ‘parents’ sent their children to daycare, which was run by their peers – at a fee, of course. Some of the butternut babies have names, some wear diapers, and some newborns are early bloomers boasting some facial hair.
Nevertheless, this project gave the learners valuable insight into the reality of parenthood. “They definitely learn a lot through the written assignment, but practical experience can be worth a lot,” Pienaar said.
The project started at the end of April and concluded on Friday May 19. The ‘babies’ were donated to Curro’s ground and cleaning staff.
