Chapter Seven: Something to Watch Summary and Analysis

In September 1940, Leo Hart met with the teachers he had hired and the fifty kids who would be the first students at the new Weedpatch School. They gathered in the field next to Weedpatch Camp where lumber and bricks sat in piles. Together, kids and teachers and Leo Hart built the school, brick by brick and beam by beam. On the first day, the kids built a trench where a water pipe was installed, which enabled the school to have running water. The teachers and newly named principal, Pete Bancroft, worked hand in hand with the kids and inspired a spirit of confidence and self-worth within them. The two old federal buildings were renovated into classrooms. The new building took three months to build and contained more classrooms and a cafeteria.

By October...