In his book, Mr. DeRosa writes about the potent oppositional forces he faced in starting and operating a New Jersey public charter school. Overcoming those forces through fortitude and invincible determination, he details the sweeping education reforms in curricular, school-day learning time, establishing an "academics-first school culture," among numerous other innovative reforms he designed and implemented to make the school he founded one of the highest performing public schools, charter or traditional, in New Jersey. His narrative memoir also chronicles the major events and developments of the Classical Academy during his nearly two-decade school leadership.