Book Reviews
Schools Where Everyone Belongs: Practical Strategies for Reducing Bullying by Stan Davis
Reading level: Adult
This is a very readable book by a former child and family therapist who became a school counselor. In his career as a therapist, Stan Davis worked with many targets of bullying, but found that nothing he had been trained to do helped them very much.
Students who bullied rarely appeared in his office. Davis writes, "I found that [children who bullied] were, for the most part, comfortable with their own behavior and willing to put up with the occasional punishments in exchange for the feelings of power they got from intimidating others."
As a school counselor, Davis continued attempts to support targets of bullying and to talk more often with students who bullied. In his search for more effective bullying interventions, he discovered the research of Professor Dan Olweus of the University of Bergen, Norway. Davis realized Olweus's approach to changing a school system is more likely to lead to real and sustainable change than just trying to change an individual.
STEPS TO RESPECT Connections
The book is very practical and easy to read. It includes outlines for school discipline policies, sample reporting forms, and a chapter on working with parents. These strategies and tools are a good fit with the STEPS TO RESPECT program. Davis devotes a few chapters to working with at-risk students due to his history as a child and family therapist. Most of the book, though, is useful knowledge for any classroom teacher, principal, or parent who wants to understand bullying and learn strategies to prevent it.
Peggy Carey
Committee for Children
