Debbie Moment, a 15-year-old, agrees: "Here, teachers treat you like a friend, always real polite and nice. Teachers at Southie don't care how they talk to you. I always feel real tense at Southie. I can't think straight there."

Thomson's Island does seem to teach the skeptics a good deal about human nature and about what kids accustomed to a highly polarized setting beset by racial strife can accomplish, in a better environment. But for all the votes of approval from students, it is easy to forget that the program is a short-lived one. After seven weeks on the island many students begin to ask questions, to take academics more seriously, to think more carefully about their futures. But then each group returns to Southie High, back to the troopers and the fights. Most of these 14-and 15-year-olds say they do not look forward to returning to Southie High. Some even speak confidently about remaining out on the island for the whole year. But Alan November, coordinator of the program and part-time student at the Graduate School of Education, says he tells the students that this option is not open to them.

"We've become resigned to the fact that the program is a one-shot deal for many of these kids," November says. Without the financial resources to maintain a formal follow-up program, the Thomson staff members must rely on casual contact with their former students. The chances are limited to the times when teachers come into South Boston High to recruit students for a new program, or when a student calls an old Thomson instructor for advice.

But the program is not easily dismissed. "South Boston High School's administrators have decided the program is worth it enough even if it has few long-range effects. They want these kids to feel good about themselves, for once," November says. "It would be criminal not to give these students the chance to participate in the program."

In fact, bright options are open to some of the Thomson Islanders who do not look forward to returning to the mainstream of Southie High. During the spring of 1975, a group of South Boston High School teachers visited Thomson's Island and, apparently inspired by what they saw, returned to Southie to form an alternative "school-within-a-school" for select students. In the two years since, several other spin-off alternative programs have begun at Southie High. November says about half the Thomson Islanders apply for an alternative program when they leave the island, of that number, about 80 per cent are admitted. Hopes for a more comprehensive follow-up program hinge on current efforts to attract the long-term federal funding needed to finance such a plan, in addition to the program's state and private funding.

For now, the link between South Boston High School and this small island, only a mile out in the harbor, appears to be a strong one. The administrators believe they can help build self-confident yet trusting individuals with a new-found respect for educational pursuits; South Boston High administrators view the program as a means of providing the school community with a flow of more tolerant, understanding students.

"Everyday, what we're about here is making these kids feel good about themselves. If we don't do that, we're not doing our jobs," November says. "The Center has a very strong commitment to respond to the needs of Boston's inner city communities. If those needs change, the island will change."