parents and principals as partners in creating a culture of learning

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the child trusts and accepts the adult as a guide to and an image of his own future.
This resulting sense of confidence and security promotes the child's readiness and
willingness to explore and to learn (Du Toit & Kruger, 1994:11).
From the above, it is evident that the relationship of trust is significantly
pathic/affective in nature. It is primarily within this relationship that the trusted
adult accompanies the trusting child and provides emotional support. The qual ity
of the relationship of trust, or affective guidance, is directly related to the quality
of the child's learning (Sonnekus, 1985:51; Vrey, 1990:24).
Whatever the educator and the educand accomplish during their pedagogic
encounter, there is a specific goal, namely that the events are aimed towards a
future about which the educand is still uncertain. He searches for certainty. His
human form of existence is a venturing out to the future. Because this is
inevitable, he has to depend on the support of the adult to do so. Since his future
actually represents a grater existential venturing than in the present, he needs
someone he can trust, in this way he will gain a foothold or 'anchorage' in life,
today, tomorrow and in the days to follow. He wants to be certain that life (with
his educator) is meaningful, and that his participation in life and in reality is not
without significance. He hankers after safety and security and once he has
acquired this, he experiences emotional security (Du Plooy, Griessel &
Oberholzer, 1992:95).
A trusting sphere in which the child and the educator (parent) accept each other
as persons who are bearers of human dignity is necessary to constitute the
education relationship. In accepting the child, the adult must accept the child as
he is, but also as he wants to be, must be and should be. The mutual involvement
of the educator and the child is indicated in the adult's accosting of the child as a
"child". In calling out the name "child" the adult concurs that he accepts the
existence of an ontic bond between himself and the child. This ontic bond is a