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CHAPTER 2
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A PSYCHOPEDAGOGIC PERSPECTIVE
2.1 INIRODUCI10N
In order to study the phenomenon of abused children from a psychopedagogic
perspective it is important to give an exposition of the term "psychopedagogic
perspective".
Education is essentially the accompaniment or rather, the leading upwards of a child
by adults in his own ascent to adulthood, as the formal and ultimate or total aim of
education. The term pedagogy is also indicative of a course of action or a structural
procedure which is followed in everyday life with a view to helping children to achieve
adulthood eventually. The concept pedagogy thus actually functions in the field of
pedagogics as a synonym for the concept education (Du Plooy, Griessel & Oberholzer
1982 : 22-23).
In the education situation two persons are involved : an adult knowing the way the
child has to go, and the child as an adult-to-be who does not know yet which way to
go. The adult as an educator wants to transfer something to the child (as an educand)
as a beneficiary; he wants to co=unicatewith him while he is sacrificing his time and
energy to do so because he understands the child's situation in life as one in which he
still wants to find his way with the adult's help. The educator is connected with the
adult-to-be in a special way as they are related to each other pathically, but also
intellectually and even volitionally (Du Plooy & Kilian 1981 : 7).
Sonnekus (1979), Landman & Roos (1973) and Van der Stoep (1972a.) have shown
how the categories and essences of Psychopedagogics, Fundamental Pedagogics and
Didactical Pedagogics are inter-related and how they are concurrently actualised in the
classroom situation. The question which invariably arises is : "What constitutes the