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Summary: Thanks!
Review: I would like to thank Ron Clark for writing this book. As a teacher of young children, I am constantly looking for great books that will help me improve my craft. Mr. Clark has written this book as a guide to help the educator teach character skills and manners. "The Essential 55" reminds me of "The Child Whisperer" by Matt Pasquinilli. Pasquinilli gives simple tools to use to improve communication between adults and children, and at the same time teaches the adult how to develop character skills and manners in children. Ron Clark teaches us how to frame this "basic etiquette" for children in a way that they can understand and apply quickly. I put "The Essential 55" and "The Child Whisperer" on the reading list for our PTO group this Fall.
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Summary: Thank you to Mr. Clark!!!!!!!!
Review: I have been teaching over 32 years, and I have been a long believer in the importance of having manners and respect in the classroom. We, as parents and teachers, all owe Mr. Clark a great deal of gratitude for writing a book that embodies my feelings about teaching the whole child and doing more than just passing on curriculum. I wish every parent could read this book, but this book especially needs to be in the hands of every first year teacher. I have purchased 5 copies to give to each of the new teachers at my school, and I outlined Mr. Clark's tips for dealing with parents - brilliant!
Even for an old man like me, Mr. Clark found a way to inspire and motivate me to be a better teacher and to try to reach the heights he obtained with the students he taught. Thank you Mr. Clark for doing an outstanding service to the educational system in America!
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Summary: Wonderful message and teacher!
Review: I had the pleasure of attending a conference this summer where Mr. Clark spoke about this book. I have to tell you, I have never seen people react to someone the way the crowd did to him. Mr. Clark is humorous, enthusiastic, wise and right on target. He gave all of us a shot in the arm and we are all ready to start the year off right. My school is using The Essential 55 as a model for how we are going to run our discipline plan, and I can't thank Mr. Clark enough for speaking in our area, writing an outstanding book, and for motivating us all. BTW, if anyone knows how to reach Mr. Clark, I would greatly appreciate it if you would pass along that information. We would like to order some of his posters that have the rules on them.
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Summary: Great Book for Teachers, Parents and Youth Leaders
Review: I saw Ron Clark on OPRAH and immediately went to AMAZON and ordered TWO copies. I have two children and wanted them to have this book to keep. There are great lists of tips that I find myself using. When I read some of the tips I thought "well,of course" but then I realized "what child would think to do this on their own and who would think to tell them to?". These tips will be very helpful to them as adults too, especially in the "real" world. I have also used this book when working with my Girl Scout troops. We all show a greater amount of respect for one another when we follow the "essential 55".
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Summary: Great Resource for Beginning Teachers
Review: I thought this young man had an interesting story. He tells it very well, and his rules are great. This is not just for teachers though, I'd love to see parents use these rules at home.
This book is an easy read and is written in everyday language.Excellent buy!
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Summary: Good read for parents too
Review: The subtitle of this book is misleading -- this really is a book of etiquette rules, rather than a book about teaching techniques. The only direct impact Clark's rules have on teaching is that they (presumably) lead to better behavior in the classroom and they help children develop discipline and self-esteem. That said, this book makes a lot of sense for both parents and teachers, reminding us of the value of old-fashioned manners, and helping parents have some sense of their children's teachers' perspectives. I don't know how you could really dislike this book, because Clark's enthusiasm is so infectious.
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Summary: Best Seller?
Review: I bought and read Ron Clark's book because I am an educator. I was interested because he won a great teacher award. I thought the parts that mentioned the White House visit and the Disney visit were wonderful, however, the rules Mr. Clark used, I found ridiculous. We must realize that Mr. Clark is still a fairly new teacher in the educational system. He has a lot to learn regarding the discipline of children. I was not impressed with the 55 Rules. I am surprised it was on the best seller list. As a teacher for the past eleven years, I have to say, Go with what works for you... Mr. Clark did!
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Summary: Excellent book
Review: As a parent I want to help my children get a better education.The Essential 55 should be basic rules in life. I commend Mr. Clark on what he has done for the children because there aren't many teachers out there right now that really care about the students like he does.I reccomend this book for anybody that wants to help their child " want to learn ". I'm getting this for my sons teachers for Christmas! Bravo Mr. Clark!
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Summary: Good behavior does not equal critical thinking
Review: As an educator and a parent, I was interested in finding out how to better teach my students and children to be thinkers, evaluaters, analysts, etc. Higher level cognitive skills are essential for success at school, at home, and eventually, in the "real world" of the workplace and so on. However, this book does not try to solve the question: How do we teach kids to be critical thinkers?
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Summary: The Essential 55....
Review: The first "essential" gave me the clue that I would not like this book. Saying "yes sir/mam" does not show respect. It is how you treat a person that shows respect. To lead children to believe that a "yes sir" will get a person somewhere is wrong. I have been teaching for 28 years and in our school we are on a first name basis with our students. The interaction between teacher/student is what teaches respect. Some of the 55 essentials are worth while but most are something parents need to be teaching. Teachers have always needed to teach the parent along with the student. The 55 essentials leaves the parent(s) out of the equation.
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