Annette's Book Review
Overall this was an ok read. I like that it was kind of a mix between a research article and a book. I don’t typically like reading novels and books. My personal preference is journal articles, so I found this book to be interesting in that sort of mix between a journal article and a book. Chapter 2 of this book was the research article standpoint, it had statistics and research based on the negative effects on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) students from harassment. I can see that this book is geared toward educators and school administrators oppose to a general audience. Her basic aim from this book to her readers is to make educators aware of bullying and harassment. She also explains three main types of harassment which educators should be aware of so that they can identify it. She states the harassments pretty clearly. The first two chapters I found interesting and pretty sad. After the first two chapters, the book get a little slow. In chapter 3-6 she talks about the legalities, forms, and procedures. During these chapters she talks about schools and how schools can play a role in harassment and overall, general feelings towards LGBT students. She also talks about educators and how they also influence treatment and roles of the educator in harassment issues. In chapter 5 she talks about legal issues and law about harassment. That chapter was a very slow chapter to read. In the last chapter, chapter 6, she talks about how to make schools a better place for LGBT students and how to slowly work on changing schools dynamics in regards to LGBT students.
Aaron Dolin's Book Review
Meyer presents the reader with an in- depth look of how pervasive and destructive bullying, sexism, and LGBT discrimination to our education system and our children. the basic point of meyers research is that no program will succeed if it does not have the complete support of the school board and top school administrators. to often bullied kids are turned away from critical help with a kids will be kids response. There are shockingly few schools with school wide anti bullying programs, policies, and procedures. school administrators are loathe to implement real consequences for bullies for fear of parent lawsuits, bad publicity or loss of their own job. with her in depth interviews of several hetrosexual gay and bisexual/transgender, teachers meyer takes us into their frustrating world. Teachers who do try to be effective anti bullying advocates are often met with resistance from school administrators, who seem to prefer a dont ask dont tell policy, rather than deal directly with LGBT bullying. Administrators are often homophobic themselves as are many parents. These people many actually believe LGBT should be bullied and will hopefully leave the school. According to Meyers female students are proven to get far less postive attention from teachers than their male counterparts. again Meyers point out teachers are only human and must be taught to erradicate sexism from their teaching styles and from their schools. students will learn to avoid sexism only when their teachers and parents teach them to do so. Meyers is hopeful committed adults, committed to tolerance polices, can make a real reducation in student bullying.
Louie Ingratta's Book Review
There have been countless studies of bullying and harassment in schools. Bullying can occur for many different reasons. In this book the author studies how sex is a factor in bullying. She mixes research, theory, and practical ideas connected to issues of sex, gender, sexual orientation, bullying, and harassment. The author explains very important terms like (hetero)sexual harassment, sexual-orientation harassment, and harassment because of gender nonconformity. The author makes this book easy-to-read when talking about legal issues addressing harassment in schools. I liked the book because she not only studied these acts of bullying, but she leaves a way on how to prevent it. As a future educator, her ideas of preventing bullying are just as important as stopping bullying after it has happen. Her book gives a good insight on how to have adults involved so that bullies are disarmed and are afraid to bully other students.