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

Rating:
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.

Rating:
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: Ron Clark is a master we can learn from
Review: What a fabulous book! I read it over the weekend and gave it to my daughter. Ron Clark's rules for guiding kids in the classroom and daily life is a godsend for parents, teachers and students. I also recommend a book written by Dr. Rosalene Glickman, a teacher too, called Optimal Thinking: How to Be Your Best Self. Optimal Thinking shows all of us how simple it is to bring our best self to every situation and make the most of it. Both of these books are top-notch.