When Ron Clark walked into his fifth grade class in rural North Carolina, he was confronted with a tremendous challenge. The children had little interest in learning and were sorely lacking in guidance. How would he transform a group of apathetic kids into diciplined, thoughtful, and curious students? He quickly realized that they needed to learn some basic rules. Clark compiled a list of 55 lessons and soon, his fifth grade students were reading at sixth grade level, and loving it. What's more, they were gaining somethng crucial-self-respect. Those lessons evolved into The Essential 55-guidelines to living and interacting with others.