By Nick Dubin; 173 pages. Subtitle: Strategies and Solutions.
A victim of school bullying battles back as an adult in this small helpful handbook. Dubin didn't know he had Asperger syndrome until he was 27, but bullies didn't need a label to target him as a victim. He identifies the traits of kids with AS that make them particularly vulnerable to bullies, and presents suggestions for schools, teachers, parents and bystanders to end the abuse and make classrooms more inclusive.
- Combines personal memoir with useful strategies and programs
- Identifies traits that make Asperger's kids particularly vulnerable to bullying
- Describes programs that schools can implement to become more accepting of all
- Shows the ways in which teachers and administrators can be bullies, too
- Chapters conclude with a bullet-list summary for easy reference
- Those bullet lists get longer and less useful in later chapters
- The strategies part is more effective than the personal memoir
- Focuses narrowly on AS, when much of the information is applicable to any bullied student
- Possibility of eliminating bullying may seem overly hopeful
- Chapter 1: My Own Experiences of Being Bullied
- Chapter 2: Easy Targets - Children on the Autism Spectrum
- Chapter 3: Empowering Victims
- Chapter 4: Empowering Bystanders
- Chapter 5: Empowering Teachers
- Chapter 6: Understanding Bullies
- Chapter 7: Empowering Parents
- Chapter 8: Empowering Schools
- Chapter 9: An Interview With My Parents
- Appendix I: Frequently Asked Questions
Appendix II: Internet Resources
The conventional wisdom is that bullying is a fact of school life, and students should just grimace and bear it. Nick Dubin did that as a schoolchild with Asperger syndrome, and he's here to say that nobody should have to bear what he did. Although his stories of childhood oppression are not so unique, his strategies for students and schools to empower bystanders and change policies do offer hope that fewer children will share those experiences in the future.
Children with Asperger's are particularly likely to be picked on by classmates and teachers, as Dubin points out. They have odd habits, they're clueless about social cues, they sometimes seem singleminded about bringing negative attention to themselves, and they may not be able to tell the difference between sarcasm and sincerity. While children with Asperger syndrome may not be able to identify bullying to report it -- and administrators may not be so sympathetic if they do -- the abuse still takes a psychological toll.
Dubin, who lectures in schools on the topic of bullying, has many positive suggestions for making victims less vulnerable, bystanders more bold, and schools more sympathetic to students with Asperger's, and parents will find the book a useful guide to identifying warning signs and recommending solutions. The bully dynamic involves a person with power exercising it over a person without, and the suggestions here work to even out that balance of power. That's good news to parents who may be feeling pretty powerless, too.
