Educate, Medicate, or Litigate? : What Teachers, Parents, and Administrators Must Do About Student Behavior

"DiGiulio has tackled an issue at the center of our struggle for safety education―how to educate students without turning their schools into armed encampments. His sober recommendations offer clear, proven methods of addressing school violence while returning decency and mutual respect to our schools."
Vincent Schiraldi, President
Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice, Justice Policy Institute
Washington, DC

Robert C. DiGiulio, author, educator, and expert in student behavior, dares to suggest that schools and community can reestablish themselves as preventive forces in the face of the growing problem of antisocial behavior and violence in schools. DiGiulio outlines how communities―not the government, doctors, or lawyers―can offer schools vital and concrete support to play a preventive rather than reactive role in keeping students safe.

The author examines negative psychosocial behaviors from their roots to their eventual eruptions within the context of current research, best practice, and sound administrative actions. Topics include:

• Ten persistent myths about schools and violence
• To medicate or incarcerate
• The downside of legalism
• The role of the home
• Best school-level preventive responses to antisocial behavior
• Best community-level preventive responses to antisocial behavior
• The force within each community

An essential resource for anyone concerned about the role of school and community in creating safe environments for today′s youth. This book has been written for both the professional and the layman, for the student and practitioner, for the person who works in the schools each day, and for the informed taxpayer. Ultimately, it has been written for all our children.

Robert DiGiulio is Education Professor at Johnson State College in Vermont. He earned his Ph.D. in human development from the University of Connecticut, and recently earned his D.Ed. in socio-education from the University of South Africa. He began his teaching career in the New York City public school system, where he taught for a number of years. His 33-year career as an educator includes teaching at the elementary, middle, junior high and college levels, with experience ranging from crowded urban schools to a one-room schoolhouse. He has also served as a school principal educational researcher, consultant, and writer.

As an educational consultant, he co-developed Teen Test, a vocational counseling program for adolescents. He coauthored educational computer software called Language Activities Courseware and authored its teachers guide. His Teacher magazine article The Guaranteed Behavior Improvement Plan was recognized as having one of the highest total readership scores of any of that magazines articles.

He has authored numerous books including When You Are a Single Parent, Effective Parenting, Beyond Widowhood, and After Loss, selected by Readers Digest as their featured condensed book in May 1994. He is a contributing author to The Oxford Companion to Womens Writing in the United States, and Marriage and Family in a Changing Society, and is the coauthor of Straight Talk about Death and Dying.

Most recently, he has written Nonviolent Interventions in Secondary Schools: Administrative Perspectives, a chapter in Peacebuilding for Adolescents: Strategies for Educators and Community Leaders, edited by Ian H. Harris and Linda R. Forcey. Dr. DiGiulio′s most recent books are Great Teaching: What Matters Most in Helping Students Succeed, Educate, Medicate, or Litigate? What Teachers, Parents, and Administrators Must Do About Student Behavior, and Positive Classroom Management: A Step-by-Step Guide to Successfully Running the Show Without Destroying Student Dignity, both published by Corwin Press.

Dr. DiGiulio′s interests include international education, child behavior, and teacher education. He won a 2002-2003 Fulbright Scholar Award to the University of Jyvaskyla in Finland. He was a Delegate to the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) 2003 Conference on Teaching and Learning for Intercultural Understanding. Dr. DiGiulio is also a member of the Vermont Society for the Study of Education, and serves on the Project Harmonys Advisory Board on Education Programs. He resides with his family in northern Vermont.