Working with Crescent City Schools and hearing their story was an amazing experience. The story of how the organization started with just one failing school and ended up working their way to three very successful schools is an inspiring one; their journey was definitely a difficult one with many struggles along the way for teachers and for students which is why I was reminded of Men We Reaped. In Men We Reaped, Jesmyn Ward describes her childhood in which she had many struggles but still she managed to become an author of extremely successful books. Throughout Men We Reaped, there were strong themes of persistence and resilience. Jesmyn’s mother was taken advantage of many times by many people in her life, such as Jesmyn’s father who abandoned…show more content… The Crescent City Schools would not have been able to get out of their failing status if the students didn’t work just as hard as the staff did. They were at a disadvantage because they had been attending sub par schools for so long; Kate Mehok, CEO of Crescent City Schools, told us that there were some high school juniors who didn’t know how to read, not because they weren’t trying but because the education system wasn’t good. The kids not only worked hard, but they were open to and compliant with their new teachers which can be hard sometimes. All of the changes that were happening during the turnaround must have been overwhelming, stressful, and troubling at some times, but the kids didn’t let that stop them and during the turnaround of the school they worked just as hard the teachers did to make the school work. Clearly they were successful because of the success of all the schools now. The student’s situation is very similar to Jesmyn’s because she was initially at a disadvantage because of her socioeconomic status she attended some subpar schools where she had some social problems but that didn’t stop her from working hard so she could eventually attend University of Michigan. Jesmyn suffered so many losses and had so many conflicting feelings about what to do in her life, yet no matter what she always continued to get her education and working hard towards finding a job. Both of these groups were at a