"If there were a code you could learn that would lead you to become a great teacher (of students, of your children, or of any young person in your life) wouldn't you want to learn it? The Essential 55 is a collection of the amazingly effective rules that Ron Clark used to become an extraordinary teacher. Through trial and error, this teacher has distilled fifty-five ideas that have helped him take apathetic students in some of the country's most challenging areas and transform them into award-winning scholars. Covering all aspects of life, from the classroom to the world, from human interactions to the most frightening of all, cafeteria and bathroom manners, Ron Clark shows that with determination, discipline and regular rewards, the children you stick by will be the children you eventually admire."