A Lesson in Lifestyles : Wealthy 6th-Graders, Low-Income Kindergartners Make Pals

The 30 tiny 5-year-olds from low-income Long Beach families stepped off the public bus at Shoreline Village and immediately became shy as they were greeted by 30 bubbly sixth-graders from wealthy Corona del Mar.

“They’re here! They’re here!” the children from Harbor View Elementary School in Corona del Mar yelled happily. Their younger counterparts from Lee Elementary School in Long Beach drew back.

“Will you be brave? Who will go first?” kindergarten teacher Francie Hansen called out to her class, which was huddled in the grassy park. To avoid being the first one to meet a big kid, some ducked low, while others covered their faces. A few asked the Cambodian-speaking bilingual aide for an explanation.

Finally, a slim child named Frank raised his hand, which within moments was held by the big, freckled hand of a sixth-grader named Franklin. The two became inseparable friends for the day.

Each of the younger pupils were eventually paired with a sixth-grader, and in no time, some of Long Beach’s poorest children and the offspring of some of Orange County’s wealthiest families were becoming friends.

“He likes Ninja Turtles. Cool!” sixth-grader Andrew Simon said about his friend, kindergartner Derek Henderson.

“Hey, check this guy out. He’s good,” added sixth-grader Cameron Conover about his newfound friend, Deon Stephens, as the two played a few quick rounds of the palm-slapping reflex game called “hot hands” or “hand slaps,” depending on the school.

The recent morning meeting was arranged by two teachers, Hansen from the Long Beach school and Harbor View’s Sharon Harrington, who are longtime friends. “We were chatting once about the places I can take my kids and how she (Hansen) can’t take them hardly anywhere,” Harrington said. “To go on a bus trip is a big deal, a big expense (for the Long Beach class). My kids can pretty easily come up with the money if we ask them.”

In fact, the Corona del Mar students raised about $150 through a bake sale and recycling aluminum cans to help pay for the Long Beach class’ trips.

At lunchtime, the Harbor View students took meat and crackers, quart-size Evian jugs and Yoplait yogurt from fashion-colored sacks. No one seemed to notice that most of the smaller children were eating government-issue, plastic-sack lunches of identical turkey sandwiches, boxed milk and red apples.

About 90% of the children from the Long Beach school qualify for free government lunches because their annual family income, for two parents with one child, is under $8,600. None of the Harbor View students qualify for free government lunches. Most live in homes costing more than $500,000.

The preteen Corona del Mar children also had a crash course in baby-sitting as they gave the smaller youngsters piggyback rides, or hoisted them onto carousel ponies at Shoreline Village.

Most of the Long Beach children also went home wearing beanies, were armed with squirt guns, or carrying other souvenirs that the Harbor View youngsters bought for them at the park.