The key to educational success? Side with the teacher, not your child

It takes a village to raise a child. Parents and teachers should be a team – in total harmony in their shared goal of helping children develop in both learning and life. You should always back the teacher in front of your child. That used to be common sense. Unfortunately, it no longer is. There needs to be a united front where the teacher and parent are seen to be working together, but when I made this simple point on social media this week, I received a blast of online criticism.

This is what can happen in schools: a child is given a detention and says to his parent, “The teacher is picking on me” or “The teacher is racist”. His aggrieved parent marches into school to complain, thinking that they are helping their child.