Starting with Tolerance

The Scottish Executive has set out a vision for a new anti-bullying service which will "promote a positive ethos in school, community and family life". This is an exciting challenge. While the task of developing effective responses to bullying in school settings is ongoing, the new service will also tackle bullying in community and family settings.

Of course, the principles which underpin successful anti-bullying ideas can be applied anywhere. The challenge is not to find completely new ways to tackle bullying in different settings (such "breakthroughs" usually turn out to be rather similar to previous ideas) but to find better ways in which professionals and others from a variety of backgrounds may work together in the best interests of bullied children.

This will not be easy. Parents, volunteers and groups of professionals often have different viewpoints and ways of expressing themselves. A successful approach to bullying in the community means that, for example, professionals who believe in restorative practices must be able to engage in respectful discussions with parents who believe that bullies should be belted. Only through such dialogues will attitudes change. Creating an ethos of tolerance must be our starting point - even if our ambitions stretch way beyond that.

Let us hope that all those involved in Scotland's new anti-bullying service will mind the counsel of Viktor Frankl, an Auschwitz survivor: "Being tolerant does not mean that I share another's belief. But it does mean that I acknowledge another's right to believe, and obey, his own conscience."

This is the last Anti-Bullying Network newsletter. We now pass the baton to the new anti-bullying service with the hope that the abuse and bullying of children will never go unchallenged and the plea that those who share this aim will be tolerant of each other's sincerely held views. It is the least we can ask.

Andrew Mellor
Anti-Bullying Network Manager