SOUNDING OFF:

Instead of being delighted by the latest creative and instructional endeavor at our local high school, I was completely appalled by the lack of historical, cultural, economical and community awareness the Hooverville project (“Embellished Depression,” Dec. 18) demonstrated on the part of both the students and the faculty at Edison High. In a time where discussions from “going without” to chronic homelessness are completely apropos, the project completely missed the point.

I almost fell out of my chair when the article quoted a 17-year-old boy who said “I didn’t know anything about the Great Depression before.” Really? Isn’t that information one gleans from a social studies textbook somewhere between fifth and seventh grade?

Students milled around, laughing, clad in castoffs fetched from the deep recesses of Mom and Dad’s walk-in closet. Places like Goodwill and Salvation Army would have been happy to have those donations, as would the denizens of Huntington Beach able to purchase gently used clothing this time of year.

Students were instructed to bring in soup, bread and hot cocoa so as to simulate a “bona fide” soup kitchen. Why weren’t those foods given instead as a donation to a local, real soup kitchen or homeless shelter? I can’t help but think the reality of eating one meager meal a day is lost on a student who is but a few hours away from enjoying a delicious afternoon snack by the light of his big-screen TV.

Speaking of big-screen TVs, I failed to find the whimsy in the description of “shacks” decorated with satellite dishes and vending machines. I have lived in Michigan, Santa Monica and Pittsburgh, and I have yet to find a homeless person with the time to be so twee about the dire situation in which he lives.

Have these kids ever given any real thought to actually living without a home? Instead of lolling with pals in the warm, enclosed, clean-smelling amphitheater, “learning about the Depression,” I submit that students’ time would have been better spent ladling soup into the bowls of homeless individuals who wouldn’t be getting another hot meal that day. Local soup kitchens and shelters are always looking for more volunteers, especially during this season. For the most part, we in Huntington Beach lead a charmed life, but there are individuals in our city and county who are struggling for the basics: food, shelter, water, clean and dry clothes.

The opportunities to actually make a difference while learning are abundant in a project like Edison’s, and they shouldn’t be so carelessly overlooked.

WHITNEY KATE GRAHAM is a Huntington Beach resident.