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Summary: Applied social-emotional learning...
Review: This book is Ron Clark's story about how he "identified" the 55 essential skills to get along in life...with the students he was teaching. He then formulates these "rules" into his 55 Essential Rules, which he nails to the door of his classrom.
Some of the rules make perfect sense (e.g., speaking respectfully) and some even Clark acknowledges are ludicrous (e.g., no "orange" snack foods in class--which he is willing to remove and throw ostentatiously into the garbage basket). He seems not to group his skills and rules in any particular fashion, so "respect" does not preceed "caring," for instance.
These skills seem very simple: saying please and thank you, "ma'am" and "sir," looking people in the eye, smiling, returning a question for a question, not saying "hunh?", and so forth. Clark's accompanying workbook gives parents and teachers some specific methods for teaching these essential 55 skills.
The book requires no more than 1 hour reading. Curriculum implementation, however, is quite a challenge, and Clark underestimates the difficulty and complexity of the challenge. It is possible to stir up quite a hornet's nest with poor implementation. If the kids are not ready or prepared, they will experience a lot of what Clark does as a real challenge, and they will either resent the teacher or fight back. The Workbook (also sold on Amazon) may be helpful. Clark's book on the 11 essential qualities of a teacher is less helpful than this book.
Rating: 
Summary: This is a great book!
Review: I really enjoyed this book. As a young teacher, I "stole"some of Ron Clark's rules. Of course, I adapted them to my private school classroom. I think that it lays a wonder framework to any classroom. It is important to lay down the law so that there are no suprises during the year. I created a classroom procedures notebook for the students and parents that are in my classroom. It was a very inspirational book. I am reading the follow up boo on important characteristics of teachers.
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Summary: Ron Clark is amazing!
Review: I had the wrong idea when I started this book: It had been heralded as one of those "life lessons" books that people of all ages can learn from. And in that context, the book's rigid rule set is far too simpleton for the complex world in which we live.
However, once I started reading the book in its proper context, that is, as a guide on how to educate children, I found it much more enjoyable. And my admiration for Ron Clark increased with each passing page. This guy is incredible! If only my grade school teachers had been as energetic and as innovative as he is.
And, frankly, his results speak for themselves: His students love him, their test scores are high, and they do their homework -- and all of this in some of the most challenging school conditions in the country.
A must read if you have young children, and an interesting read if you don't have children but are interested in how one man overcame the trials and tribulations of early childhood education.
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Summary: Heed this book's advice and improve your spelling skills.
Review: Like most books on the subject, this offers some useful advice along with less-conventional thinking. I also suggest Webster's Collegiate Dictionary as a supplementary read to reviewers like Library Lover, who may not be fond of this book. Perhaps you, too, could learn the proper spelling of -irrelevant- after years of teaching our children!
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Summary: This is a teacher?
Review: Simply put, the stupidest, most irrelevent book on the classroom ever printed. P.S. I've been teaching 22 years.
Rating: 
Summary: Half-Baked Cookies
Review: Better pour yourself a tall glass of milk to drink as you read this book. There are a lot of cookies in it. And a lot of half-baked ideas. My grade-school teachers failed me. They didn't take me to any basketball games or the White House, let alone Disney World. And they never baked any cookies. Somehow, I learned how to diagram sentences. I memorized prepositions, state capitals, times-tables and the names of not a few presidents. And I learned to appreciate the Flight of the Bumblebees and the Valkyries, as well as the Wright Brothers and the Mercury Seven. Along the way, I learned manners and how to play fair. Everything I needed to know I learned in Kindergarten, and first grade, second, third, fourth . . . Well, you get the idea. I went on to graduate, worked in an assortment of part-time jobs while attending college, and ultimately became a teacher. My degree plan didn't include baking cookies. What a cool teacher! He takes his kids to restaurants, basketball games, bowing alleys - all on a teacher's salary, for doing what they're supposed to do. Becoming a 5th-grade teacher was a natural transition from baking donuts at Dunkin' Donuts to baking cookies for class. Lots of cookies. Take Rule 16. Ron Clark bakes cookies for the class after the tenth day of perfect submission of homework. What if all the answers are wrong? He doesn't address this. But if one kid doesn't turn in the work, there is no reward: "I use peer pressure," he shamelessly admits: "I let the class lay it on thick. I saw them glare at him . . . I watched them fuss at him at lunch time." More of that peer pressure strategy worked for him when he wouldn't allow anyone to eat until a girl admitted she cut in line. It's a half-baked idea in a book like a half-baked cookie that winds up in every batch. Ron is not above exploiting a child's credulity. He makes a video for the substitute, and the day before he's out he meets with a couple of kids and swear them to secrecy. "I tell one kid that when I say I can see the kids in class, I want him to say, 'Mr. Clark, can you really see us?' . . . It always freaks out the students, and I have even shocked a few substitutes here and there." Must be another one of those half-baked cookies. Ron had some bad experiences at Dunkin' Donuts. Customers didn't look into his soulful eyes as he served their donuts. He drew the lesson to "never talk to waiters or waitresses as if they are servants . . . you do not want to be on the bad side of a waiter." Isn't a restaurant part of what's called the service industry, and employees called servants? Since when does treating such employees as servants imply treating them with disrespect? He's paying your salary, after all. And your tip, if you're a good servant. Every teacher has quirks, such as Clark's Doritos Rule #47. Okay, he hates Doritos. Me, I hate Corn Nuts. Ron doesn't have much use for property rights, either: "I noticed that one girl had a bag of Doritos and she had a smirk on her face. I quickly took the bag from her, walked over to a trash can, and smashed the bag between my hands. . . " Ron can't make up his mind if he wants the little kids to like him or not. On one hand he says, "Sacrificing a little dignity can go a long way when you are trying to win over students." On the other, he has a First Day of School Speech that says, "I'm not here to be your friend, I've got more friends than I can handle, who needs you anyway, blah, blah, blah." And then he asks, "Do I want the kids to like me? Yes, it is absolutely necessary." Necessary to whom? The kids? You? I've got news for you, Ron - not everyone is going to like you. Not in the classroom, and not in the real world. You have a winsome personality, no doubt, and you go through the trouble to teach good manners, which a lot of people manifestly lack, but I didn't go into education to watch basketball games with my students, or bake cookies. Be sure to wipe off the cookie crumbs when you finish reading this book.
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Summary: Some Good Advice, Some Interesting Advice, Some Weird Advice
Review: The Essential 55 is an interesting book that I think both parents and teachers can get a lot out of. Ron Clark, who is apparently a highly successful teacher, has set out 55 rules of his classroom he believes are the key to his and his student's success. Some of the advice is useful, if obvious (look your teacher in the eye, address teachers with "sir" and "maam". Some of the advice is weird--like always tipping in hotels and the length of time a group of students should applaud when congratulating a fellow student. The essence of this slim book could easily be distilled into a useful Parent's Magazine article--I'm not sure it warrants an entire book.
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