The contrast between the MHASP Green Groupcoordinators and their younger counterparts isstriking. During the visit Wednesday, all GreenGroup counselors present happen to be white, allof the children African-American or Latino.
Although Beeman and Sykes said that the ethnicdifference isn't always so obvious, there is stilla noticeable gap.
Yet Sykes said race and class differences arenot an issue for students within the program.
"I've never seen it addressed," she said.
This may be due to the fact that students inGreen group and other MHASP groups are not awareof the privileges Harvard students are offeredaccess to at the College.
"I don't think they understand what [Harvard]is," Sykes said. "I think they see it as a funplace to come and visit the counselors."
But Beeman noted that many of the children inMHASP will spend their lives in the housingproject and that they tend to be well aware ofeconomic and social differences between themselvesand their counselors.
"There's a pretty high drop-out rate from highschool...and college education is definitelyunusual," she said. "Mission Hill is prettyinsular--there's a lot of extended families whostay here."
Although class and race may not surface topicsof conversation often, Beeman insisted that theyremain a subtext behind classroom interactions.
I think [the kids] are very aware of the factthat we're predominantly white and affluent," shesaid. "I think they think we're all rich. I don'tthink it's ever very serious, but theyoccasionally make reference to it."
This Wednesday, the fast pace of events kepteveryone focused on the task at hand. After anhour or so, arts and crafts were underway and soonall of children present had hands well-coated inprimary-colored paint.
Some of the excess energy bubbling up in thegroup was channeled into the puppet-making, buttrue to form, some kids still insisted on chasingone another through the halls with wildly drippinghands.
"I knew [the paint] was going to be bad, but Ithink they had fun with it," Sykes sighed.
Children remain in the program until thebeginning of high school. After that, MHASPcounselors usually hear little of them and theirafter school activities, leaving them to wonderjust how much of a difference they really made.
"I don't know how much it helps themlong-term," Beeman said. "For me it's justday-to-day.