The Essential 55: An Award-winning Educator's Rules for Discovering the Successful Student in Every Child

If there were a code you could learn that would enable you to become a wonderful teacher - of any young person in your life - wouldn't you want to learn it? The Essential 55 collects together the amazingly effective rules that Ron Clark used to become an extraordinary - and award-winning - teacher. Through trial and error, he has distilled fifty-five ideas that have helped him transform apathetic students, in some of the most deprived and challenging circumstances, into prize-winning scholars. Covering all aspects of life - from the classroom to the world, from human interactions to cafeteria manners - Ron Clark shows that with determination, discipline and regular rewards, the children you stick by will be the children you eventually admire.

I am trying to help, at home, teach a young man that is dyslexic. I thought this book might have some pointers that I might use. I started reading this book as soon as I got it, and didn't put it down until I finished it!

The book is very well written, and carries your interest throughout. It was written with quite a few interesting "rules" for teaching

and was also written with quite a bit of humor. Each idea carries you to the next idea....

It was a very enjoyable, and informative book.

This book is the ultimate in teaching - especially re children in bad environments. Very, very good tips on handling disciplinary problems.

After reading two-thirds of this book, I decided to buy 66 of them and give them to my faculty as a retirement gift. (I retired!) As this book is filled with lots of things that parents just don't teach at home any more, I decided to buy one for each member of the faculty (not retiring). So you can say, that I put my money where my mouth was. The book is superb for old and new teachers alike. I just wish that I had seen it years earlier. It may have had a greater impact on my teaching career.

This is a must read for all parents and teachers. Let us teach RESPECT!! Easy to read and enlightening.

This book sat on my shelf for a period of, ooh, maybe five years at a guess? One unusually warm day in the early light of Fall, I was cleaning up (and cleaning out) my collection of books. I came across it, and once again put it aside, something for later, a little light-hearted preparatory reading for me when my son started his first day of school. Two weeks ago, at the tender age of five, I bid him farewell as he climbed the big yellow bus into the sky, a mad grin all over his little innocent speckled face.

I picked up Ron and began reading. Five minutes later I put it down again. In the trash.

What on earth are we doing to our children? We are summoning them into the classrooms of the world to make them sit still, listen, obey, be silent, and learn, and....ummmm....what's this, Rule #9? "Always say thank you when I give you something. If you do not say it within three seconds after receiving it....." Ummmmm....well, exxxcuuuuuuse me, Ronny baby. That's a little bit of a stretch, don't you think? Sure, we need to teach our children to say our P's and Q's, be thankful and all the rest. But - three seconds? Come on now....that's a little overboard, don't you think? Haven't you ever stammered, or got your tongue down your throat, or a peanut in your tonsil and failed to reply in THREE SECONDS???? This level of perfection you demand of your students is not only unrealistic, it's downright unreasonable!! I read on.....turn the page, turn the page, and I stumble upon Rule #17, flanked between orderly conduct in the classroom to timely completion of homework - and then, again I see Ron demands that "[there will be] a swift transition from one subject to another...toward a goal of seven seconds." What???? Organization, yes, is key to effective teaching methods and transitioning from one subject to another, but the rigidity of a timeframe such as seven seconds is sounding just a little robotic, a little too much like jail to me. Should we be punishing children into learning, or encouraging them through modes of positive reinforcement I wonder? Rule #32: "When we ride on a bus we will always sit facing forward. We will never turn around to talk to other students....or get out of our seats." Ok, ok, Ron, just hold on a minute. In all my years of schooling, in all my years as student, in all my bus-riding experiences....this just is NOT realistic. Children will always talk, it is called SOCIALIZATION and is a necessary aspect to learning, and as important as what they take from the classroom~! (see also Rule #46 regarding talking - it's a normal,natural and healthy way that human beings learn to relate, make connections and socialize!)Rule #33: "When we go on field trips we will meet different people...make sure that you remember their names." Again, this is about as unrealistic and unforgiving as one can get - we are all human, and while we can try our best to remember everyone's name, I am certain that in the history of human nature, we have all forgotten someone's name at some point in time. I guess what i'm trying to say here, Ron, is this: I believe that a really successful teacher is one who has more flexibility, more compassion, more forgiveness and yes, even a greater sense of humor than to rely on some corny dorito's gag to connect with kids. A REALLY successful teacher doesn't need 55 rules - or even one rule - because the teacher knows that the most important rule is Rule #50 - "Be positive and enjoy life." Now, what's that saying again? "Too many rules spoil the broth?"