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. 'As long as you have the ability to learn, he can do anything with you - he can make you a star' - sixth-grade student in Harlem, NY