Book #1 Dangerous schools: What we can do about the physical and emotional abuse of our children

I really wanted to like this book. I went in with such high expectations- schools can be dangerous places (both intentionally and unintentionally), emotional abuse is a widely under-recognized problem and we generally don't speak enough about abusive school environments. The book had so much promise. And then I read the first few pages. 

Sadly, instead of moving from the introduction to a detailed, well-researched and well-written discussion on school environments, the book moved to a strange rant of a rather disgruntled ex-school psychologist. Instead of summarizing and applying relevant research on school discipline and negative school experiences, the author strategically name-dropped court cases (particularly those for which he served as an expert witness) involving students and schools. The book transitioned from a potential must-read into a strange, bitter attempt at an expose, reading more like an article in people magazine than a serious piece of research. I could see past the authors' use of "delinquents" and "Jews" as nouns, attributing these infractions to the book's age and colloquial tone. I could not see past the authors' overwhelming failure to cite relevant research and their blatant endorsements of assessments of their own creation. 

The book's skeleton had a lot of promise. Corporal punishment, psychological maltreatment in schools, excessive (and arguably unlawful) searches, disproportionate discipline and the general prison-esque atmosphere of some schools are certainly topics warranting further discussion. The book's emphasis on school personnel and their role in committing these infractions against students is both justified and unique- most research ignores the possible negative influence of teacher and administrator behavior on students, instead focusing on peer-to-peer interactions. Unfortunately, instead of mobilizing existing research on these topics, the authors chose to rely on personal experience and selective case-study selection. I was more than a tad disappointed. 

Overall rating- 1/5 stars. 1 star for effort and for a promising idea, but only 1 for seriously flawed execution.