Leo Hart Unsung Hero

Leo Hart: Unsung Hero of California “[The school that Leo Hart built] gave us pride and dignity and honor when we didn't have those things. The school did a great deal to cause us to believe we were special,” said Carlton Faulconer, an Oklahoma migrant that graduated from Hart’s school. The Dust Bowl was a time where the mid-South states were plagued by dust storms. Families fled the area and most of them wound up in California where the current residents thought they shouldn’t be educated. Leo Hart thought otherwise. Hart impacted many Dust Bowl refugee families by taking actions when others didn’t, building a school for Okie children, and including important life skill classes. Leo Hart’s life was pretty normal before the Dust Bowl—everyone’s lives changed then. In Vinton, Iowa, Hart’s mother was a teacher in a rural school while his father operated a plumbing business. Hart got his master’s degree of education at Arizona State University. He then taught high
A janitor taught the youngsters how to repair their shoes; the children also learned to make toothpaste and shampoo. Girls learned to sew new clothes for their families, too. Because of the toothpaste, shampoo, and new clothes, the Okies could flaunt their cleanliness in front of the people who had treated them badly before. Arvin’s attendees also learned to raise livestock, farming, carpentry, and masonry. Since butchery is part of raising livestock, the school was not only able to make a self-sufficient cafeteria, but the whole school was self-sustaining. Arvin had only been a temporary school for the emergency of the Dust Bowl, but it was adopted into the school district in 1944. Sunset School still operates where Arvin once stood. Arvin Federal Emergency School and Leo Hart changed the community of California with success and