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regarding the surrounding world) he may initially still prove to be willing to
differentiate according to his ability. The inadequate disclosure of real facts by the
educator does not, however, grant the child a sufficient opportunity to really actualise
and practise his intellectual potential, by way ofdifferentiation, as the proper guidance
and instruction are simply lacking. Inadequate intellectual education implies that the
abused child fails to achieve the necessary opportunity to differentiate the
potentialities he has been endowed with as a person and to "exercise" them in
attaching real significance to the realities of living, in practical situations. Apart from
the thousands of Black children of school going age who have no part of formal
education, in certain areas 50% of the pupils are in need of remedial education
(Investigation 1981 : 139). It is therefore not surprising that more than half of the
pupils who started their school careers in 1977 already left school before the end of
standard 4 (Investigation 1981). It is then hardly surprising that the abused child
becomes reluctant to differentiate at all.
(e) Inadequate objectivation
When a child is over-protected or rejected, or when too much is consistently expected
of him, he feels that he is not at total liberty to "let go" of himself, his fellow-man and
material things in order to view himself, his parents, other people and the realities of
life objectively. He is consequently unable to discover the factual nature of matters
(Van Niekerk 1987: 24).
If that which should be said, done and known is insufficiently modelled or instructed
to the child, he is not receiving adequate and real support toward eventually taking an
objective stance. In the classroom or at home the educator must endeavour to always
answer the child's questions concerning reality as adequately as possible. Ifthe child's
questions are ignored or answered unsatisfactorily, this child who is busy actualising
his personal potential, achieves only an uncertain or wavering grasp of the content
which he knows he does not fully know. Consequently his awareness of his ignorance
and his quest for knowledge are both intensified. In this regard the abused child's
affect may then become increasingly labile, especially because he "knows" that he "does