| "This system is based entirely on reason, religion and above all on loving-kindness” (Don Bosco)
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The Preventive System as Pedagogy
The Preventive System is also a pedagogical method characterized by:
· the wish to be amidst the young sharing their life, looking sympathetically at their world, attentive to their real experiences and values;
· the unconditional acceptance that becomes a tireless capacity for dialogue and power for their growth;
· the preventive criterion which believes in the strength of the good already present in every youngster, even the most needy, and which seeks to develop this through positive good experiences;
· the centrality of reason which becomes reasonableness of requests and rules, flexibility and persuasiveness in proposals; and of religion understood as developing the sense of God present in every person and the power of Christian evangelization; and of loving-kindness expressed as an educative love that enables growth and brings about a meeting of minds and hearts;
· a positive environment shot through with personal relationships, enlivened by the loving and reliable presence of educators and one which is also active, energizing and on behalf of the young;
· with a style of animation that believes in the positive resources of the young.
The Preventive System as Pastoral Ministry
This original proposal for evangelizing the young departs from the point of encounter with the young right where they are to be found, by valuing the natural and supernatural patrimony that each youngster has in his or her self, and in an educative environment which is rich in proposals; it is carried out via an educative approach that privileges the poorest and neediest; it promotes the development of the positive resources they have and proposes a particular form of Christian life and youthful holiness.
This original project of Christian life is organized around certain experiences of faith, certain choices of gospel values and attitudes that constitute Salesian Youth Spirituality (SYS).
The Preventive System as Spirituality
The Preventive System finds its source and centre in the experience of God’s charity that through His Providence ‘comes before’ (the real meaning of ‘preventive’) each creature. This charity accompanies and saves (gives life to) the individual.
This experience predisposes the educator to welcome God in the young, convinced that in them God offers the grace of encounter with Him, and calls the educator to serve God in them, recognizing their dignity, renewing faith in their resources of goodness and educating them to fullness of life.
This pastoral charity creates an educative rapport fitted to the adolescent, indeed the poorest of them. It is a fruit of the conviction that each life, even the poorest, most complex, most precarious existence, carries within it the power of redemption and the seed of happiness – through the mysterious presence of the Holy Spirit.
[from SDB.org]
REASON
The term “reason” emphasises, in line with the authentic view of Christian humanism, the value of the individual, of conscience, of human nature, of culture, of the world of work, of social living, or in other words of that vast set of values which may be considered the necessary equipment of man in his family, civil and political life. In the Encyclical Redemptor Hominis I recalled that Jesus Christ is the chief way for the Church: the way leading from Christ to man” .
It is significant to note that more than a hundred years ago Don Bosco used to attribute great importance to the human aspects and historical condition of the individual: to his freedom, his preparation for life and a profession, the assuming of civil responsibilities in an atmosphere of joy and generous commitment to his neighbour. He expressed these objectives in trenchant though simple words, like “joy”,” ”study” ,”devotion” ,”wisdom”, ”work” “humanity”. His educational ideal is characterised by moderation and realism. In his pedagogical plan there is a successful combination between the permanence of what is essential and the contingency of what is historical, between what is traditional and what is new. The Saint offers young people a programme which is simple but at the same time exacting, happily summed up in an evocative formula: an upright citizen because a good Christian.
In brief the “reason”, in which Don Bosco believed as a gift of God and an unfailing obligation of the educator, indicates the values of what is good, and also the objectives to be aimed at and the means and manner of using them. “Reason” invites the young to an attitude of sharing in values they have understood and accepted. He called it also “reasonableness” because of its necessary accompaniment by the understanding, dialogue and unfailing patience through which the far from easy practice of reasoning finds expression.
It is true that all this takes for granted at the present day an updated and integral anthropology, free from ideological oversimplification. The modern educator must be able to read closely the signs of the times to glean from them the emerging values which are attractive to youth: peace, freedom, justice, communion and sharing, the advancement of woman, solidarity, development, and urgent ecological demands. It is true that all this takes for granted at the present day an updated and integral anthropology, free from ideological oversimplification. The modern educator must be able to read closely the signs of the times to glean from them the emerging values which are attractive to youth: peace, freedom, justice, communion and sharing, the advancement of woman, solidarity, development, and urgent ecological demands.
(John Paul II, Letter Iuvenum Patris, 10)
RELIGION
The second term, “Religion” , indicates that Don Bosco's pedagogy is essentially transcendent, in so far as the ultimate educational objective at which it aims is the formation of the believer. For him the properly formed and mature man was the citizen with faith, who places at the centre of his life the ideal of the new man proclaimed by Jesus Christ and who bears courageous witness to his own religious convictions.
It is evidently not a question of a speculative and abstract religion, but of a living faith rooted in reality and stemming from presence and communion, from an attitude of listening and from docility to grace. As he liked to put it “the columns of an educational edifice”, are the Eucharist, Penance, devotion to Our Lady, love for the Church and its pastors. His educational process was a pathway of prayer, of liturgy, of sacramental life, of spiritual direction: for some it was the response to the call to a special consecration (how many Priests and Religious were formed in the Saint's houses!); for all it was a perspective and a path to holiness.
Don Bosco was a zealous priest who always referred back to its revealed foundation everything that he received, lived and gave to others. This aspect of religious transcendence, the cornerstone of Don Bosco's pedagogical method, is not only applicable to every culture but can also be profitably adapted even to non-Christian religions.
(John Paul II, Letter Iuvenum Patris, 11)
LOVING KINDNESS
Finally from a methodological point of view comes “loving kindness” . Here we are speaking of a daily attitude, which is neither simple human love nor supernatural charity alone. It is really the expression of a complex reality and implies availability, sound criteria and an appropriate style of conduct.
Loving kindness is expressed in practice in the commitment of the educator as a person entirely dedicated to the good of his pupils, present in their midst, ready to accept sacrifices and hard work in the fulfilment of his mission. All this calls for a real availability to the young, a deep empathy and the ability to dialogue with them. Typical and very enlightening is the expression: “Here in your midst I feel completely at home; for me, living means being here with you” With happy intuition he specified: what is important is “not only that the boys be loved, but that they know they are loved”
The true educator therefore shares the life of the young, is interested in their problems, tries to become aware of how they see things, takes part in their sporting and cultural activities and in their conversations: as a mature and responsible friend he sketches out for them ways and means of doing good, he is ready to intervene to solve problems, to indicate criteria, to correct with prudent and loving firmness blameworthy judgements and behaviour. In this atmosphere of “pedagogical presence”the educator is not looked upon as a “superior” , but as a “father, brother, friend” .2l In a perspective like this priority is given first to personal relationships. Don Bosco liked to use the term “family spirit” to define the correct kind of relationship between educators and pupils. Long experience had convinced him that without familiarity it was not possible to show love, and unless love is shown there cannot arise that confidence which is an indispensable condition for successful educative activity. The picture of the objectives to be achieved, the programme to be followed, the methodological guidelines acquire concrete form and efficacy when they are marked by a genuine “family spirit”, i.e. if lived in an undisturbed, joyful and stimulating atmosphere .
In this connection at least the ample space and importance given by the Saint to recreational periods, to sport, music, the theatre or (as he liked to express it) the life of the playground must be recalled. It is there, in spontaneous and joyful relationships, that the shrewd educator finds ways of intervening, as gentle in expression as they are efficacious because of their continuity and the friendly atmosphere in which they are made. If an encounter is to be educative there must be a deep and continued interest which leads to the acquiring of a personal knowledge of each individual and at the same time of the elements of the cultural condition they have in common. It needs an intelligent and loving attention to the aspirations, the value assessments, the conditioning factors to which the young are subjected, to their situations of life, to the local models which surround them, their tensions, their claims and their collective proposals. It is a case of detecting the urgent need for formation of conscience, of a family, social and political sense, for maturing in love and in the Christian view of sexuality, for developing the critical faculty and a proper flexibility in the evolution of age and mentality, keeping always clearly in mind that youth is not only a time of transition, but a real time of grace for the building of personality.
Even today, even though in a changed cultural context and with young people of non-Christian religions, this characteristic constitutes one of the very many valid and original elements in Don Bosco's pedagogy.
(John Paul II, Letter Iuvenum Patris, 12)
| The secret to the outcome of Don Bosco the educator is his intense spirituality, or that inner energy which united in him inseparably the love of God and neighbour such that it set up a synthesis between evangelization and education.
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- A spirituality which takes its measure from the young, especially the poorest of them, and which knows how to discover the action of the Spirit in their heart and to collaborate in its development.
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- A Marian spirituality where one entrusts oneself simply and trustingly to the maternal help of the Madonna.
This spirituality helps to discern and to confront the challenges of pastoral action. It creates unity amongst those who participate and collaborate in the mission.
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