The teacher-parent alliance

The teachers' culture of isolation is apparent in their attitude towards parents. Teachers do not tend to see parents as partners in confronting violence and discipline problems, for two main reasons: firstly, the teachers do not trust the parents to handle the problematic child effectively ("what do you expect? The child is violent because that's how his parents are!"), and secondly, they are afraid that revealing the problems at school will increase criticism of them. Those beliefs make the teachers suspicious and isolated. Ironically that position reinforces the very negative reaction it wishes to prevent. The parents respond with counter suspicion ("they probably have something to hide!"), dismissal ("what do you expect of them?") or by increasing their hostile interference ("let's get together and get rid of the principal!"). And so, the suspicion increases the hostility and vice versa. How can this vicious circle be broken ?