Chapter Eight: Our School Summary and Analysis

The students of Weedpatch School faced many challenges. In addition to helping building their school and swimming pool, they attended classes, tended to their gardens and livestock, had heavy homework loads and had to devote study time for tests. By May 1941, the student body population had increased to nearly two hundred. The students were separated into two main groups. One group attended classes in the mornings and worked on the buildings and pool in the afternoons. The other group had the opposite schedule.

The kids faced challenges that were not usually part of a child's life. Walls would collapse from strong winds, forcing suspension of classes; other kids would miss weeks of school because their parents found work miles away and moved their kids with them; and still others had to stay home with younger...