parents and principals as partners in creating a culture of learning

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relationship of warm, emotional closeness to the child and also show
emotional involvement. This allows the child to experience security, trust
and self-esteem.
Responsible parents frequently communicate with the child. Frequent and
efficient communication stimulates the child's intellectual development,
acquisition of language and communication skills and enriches the child's
educational milieu.
Parents are the most important persons in the child's life and have the
greatest influence on the development of a child's self-image. Parents who
give credit for a child's positive qualities, listen to the child actively, show
interest in him and have high expectations of and respect for him, help the
child to develop a positive self-esteem.
3.2.2 Responsible parenthood
The word ·parenthood· is synonymous with the acceptance of responsibility for
the procreation and rearing of one's child. Parenthood is loving obedience to God
and the voluntary acceptance of responsibility towards a being whom God has
brought into the life of man. Parenthood is a task of love in thankfulness for a
. kind deed of God - it is the fulfilment of a task and an answering to a call from
eternity (Urbani, 1982:42-43).
The family situation is one in which parents and children encounter one another.
The parents are the adults who must accompany their children to adulthood.
Parents educate their children so that they can become fully-fledged members of
their society. Parenthood implies specific demands made of parents. The first
demand is that the parents themselves should be proper adults and must be aware
of the requirements of adulthood (Munnik & Swanepoel, 1990:3).