The central premise of this wide-ranging collection of essays is that allowing students, parents, educators, and others who are part of the school community from kindergarten through graduate school to live openly in terms of sexual orientation is healthy for everyone. In the final analysis, the authors of these essays are advocates of safe schools in the most basic sense of safety: Schools should be places where it is safe to be oneself.
Donovan R. Walling is a writer, editor, educator, and consultant, primarily in the field of education. Although he writes in several areas, he is nationally recognized in the United States mainly for his works on writing instruction and art education, which include books, articles in professional journals, and encyclopedia entries.
In 1993 Walling was appointed to direct the publishing activities of Phi Delta Kappa (PDK) International, an association of education professionals headquartered in Bloomington, Indiana. During his thirteen-year tenure at PDK he acquired and edited more than three hundred books and monographs by distinguished authors as well as newcomers to education writing. Walling also developed a number of anthologies on various topics. Among the titles are Teachers as Leaders (1994), At the Threshold of the Millennium (1995), Open Lives, Safe Schools: Addressing Gay and Lesbian Issues in Education (1996), Hot Buttons: Unraveling 10 Controversial Issues in Education (1997, also published in Korean in 1998), Under Construction: The Role of the Arts and Humanities in Postmodern Schooling (1997), Virtual Schooling: Issues in the Development of E-Learning Policy (2003), and Public Education, Democracy, and the Common Good (2004). In 2007 Walling worked briefly as managing director of publications for the Center for Civic Education at the center's offices in Calabasas, California, before returning to Bloomington, Indiana, where he continues to serve the center as a senior consultant.
Walling's books include Complete Book of School Public Relations (Prentice-Hall, 1982); How to Build Staff Involvement in School Management (Prentice-Hall, 1984); Rethinking How Art Is Taught: A Critical Convergence (Corwin Press, 2000); Visual and Performing Arts Education, part of the Curriculum Handbook series (Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 2002); Visual Knowing: Connecting Art and Ideas Across the Curriculum (Corwin Press, 2005); Teaching Writing to Visual, Auditory, and Kinesthetic Learners (Corwin Press, 2006). His latest book, titled Writing for Understanding, was released by Corwin Press in 2009.
Walling's other publications include "Teaching of Art" and "Virtual Schooling" articles for Youth, Education, and Sexualities: An International Encyclopedia, Greenwood Publishing (2005); "Art Education in the Schools" article for Macmillan's Encyclopedia of Education, second edition (2003); and numerous articles in professional journals, including TechTrends, Educational Leadership, Phi Delta Kappan, Journal of Educational Public Relations, Roeper Review, G/C/T, School Arts, Art Education, English Journal, Curriculum Review, The Clearing House, and others. He also has written scholarly history (Chapter 3, "Patrimonialist Rulership in Tibet: Four Historical Periods," in Time, Place, and Circumstance: Neo-Weberian Studies in Comparative Religious History edited by William H. Swatos, Jr.); newspaper and magazine articles; poems in journals and anthologies; and produced scripts, including two prize-winning radio plays (1979, 1988) for Wisconsin Public Radio; a full-length stage play, Writer's Catch; and shorter stage works, including a prize-winning one-act (with Sam Troxal), The Real Ambrosia (2006).
