Educating like Don Bosco,
The Gospel of joy and pedagogy of kindness
Video commentary on the Rector Major's Strenna 2013





It was about seven in the evening and now I think back on it, that was the day my life changed!
It was an afternoon like so many others for me: I was a happy king of the kids around me.
I'm not sure how, but he managed to win me over.
The Oratory at Valdocco seemed just made for me, a new kingdom where I could be the life of the playground.
But as the days went by, little by little I came to see that it was not what they did that made them happy, but who they were.
Looking back on it, that encounter changed my life.



Michael Magone is the main character in one of the three boys' biographies written by Don Bosco. Together with Dominic Savio's and Francis Besucco's, and other writings, this one helps us understand Don Bosco's educational, pedagogical sensitivity.
He offered well-selected educational proposals at Valdocco, based on his boys' potential.
As we approach the Bicentenary of Don Bosco's birth we have a second subject matter to understand in his regard: his pedagogy.
For this we need to rediscover the Preventive System.


Rediscovering the Preventive System
Don Bosco, who lived in the 19th century, set in motion a charismatic, educational experience which has spread throughout the entire world. It is just as valid and effective today.
Day after day in Valdocco he began experimenting with a lifestyle that soon turned into a way of educating.
The basic principles – such as reason, religion and loving-kindness – found substance in small everyday things.
Life in Turin towards the end of the 1800s posed not a few challenges for Don Bosco.
He passed on his approach to the early Salesians who had grown up at Valdocco, and who were called to continue Don Bosco's work.
The social, economic, cultural and political contexts today have changed profoundly and in their diversity.
The content and approach that Don Bosco offered in educational terms need to be better understood and updated to preserve their authenticity and effectiveness.
Now that the world has become a 'global village' it is marked by constant innovation that influences cultures world-wide. Our way of thinking seems marked by cultural criteria like productivity, efficiency, and scientific reasoning.
The framework for understanding social phenomena has changed: we cannot propose past solutions unmodified.
To practise the Preventive System correctly today we need a more accurate historical appreciation of Don Bosco's approach.
We need to identify the features that made the Valdocco experience so new, original and effective in the Church and society of his day.
What was it that made the Valdocco experience so special and innovative?
There were certain attitudes in place at the Pinardi House Oratory that would subsequently be understood and re-proposed with more profound human and Christian values.
As Don Bosco grew up in society and the Church he experienced and assimilated certain sensitivities which he then realised at Valdocco:
• flexible structure, mediation between Church, society, the young and ordinary folk;
• respect for and appreciation of the popular setting;
• religion as the basis for education, as he had learned in his years at the Diocesan College;
• the dynamic interplay between religious formation and human development, catechism and education, faith and life;
• the belief that education is essential for enlightening the mind;
• attention to the needs and possibilities of those he was working for;
• valuing free time; loving-kindness as an educational style and, more generally, as a style of Christian living.
At a certain stage this experience took on a name: the “Preventive System” and was offered as a universal approach.
To modernise the principles which inspired it, re-interpret the ideas and method behind it I suggest three approaches. The first, which we should spend a little more time with, is to relaunch the idea of the good Christian and upright citizen.



Upright citizen and good Christian
Don Bosco did his best to give his boys an all-round formation. His famous line – upright citizen and good Christian – needs reinterpretation and new focus. This is demanded by circumstances in the Church, renewed following Vatican II, and society, now so different after the 20th century and globalisation.
This reinterpretation, enriched with the contributions of many different approaches, can help the reflection and educational experience of individuals and local communities.
The modern State has tried to relegate the Church to the sacristy but today the Church is discovering new forms of charity and social service in volunteer movements, the non-profit sector, parish and group initiatives.
Don Bosco's politics of the Our Father needs to be reconfirmed and updated not in ideological terms but through an education which helps young people grow in social and political sensitivity, an education that will help them commit themselves to the good of the community by choosing essential Christian and human values in their lives.
The educator needs to work via political means also so that this approach can be taken into consideration in a society where market criteria often take precedence.
Salesian educational approaches need to be improved with appropriate theoretical reflection and effective social commitment.
The same applies to relaunching the “good Christian”.
Don Bosco, burning with zeal for souls, understood the ambiguity and danger of the situation, so he tackled its assumptions and found new ways to oppose evil.
The Salesian educator must help to reveal and live the call to be human, the vocation of the individual human being. The believer, aware that he or she is a creature, knows that life is a free gift always in need of contact with the Absolute.
Our vocation as children of God is not an add-on, a luxury; it is a reality and gift whose meaning needs to be gradually appreciated and understood.
We are called to accompany young people on this journey.
The second way I suggest we focus on Don Bosco's Preventive System is to return to the young with greater preparation.



Returning to the young with greater preparation
Don Bosco developed his lifestyle, pedagogy and spirituality while being amongst the young.
The Salesian mission is a predilection for the young which is also a consecration.
The one who lives the Salesian charism never abandons the youth scene and has a vital understanding of young people: his or her heart beats wherever young people are. It is a theoretical and practical understanding that leads to discovering their needs and creating a youth ministry appropriate to the needs of the times.
For the Salesian mission to truly count, it must tackle the crux of today's culture with up-to-date ways of thinking and acting.
We have truly great challenges before us which demand a range of analyses, critical observations, solid cultural debate, an ability to understand how the circumstances of young people are evolving.
The third approach to updating the Preventive System is, as Don Bosco used say, to think of education as an affair of the heart.



Educating with the heart
“You are all thieves: you have stolen my heart”, was what Don Bosco used love tell his boys to express the deep and intense bonds he had with them.
It was not a paternalistic attitude!
”Taking possession of the heart” for Don Bosco symbolises the educator's complete dedication and the distinctive features of the one being educated. The boys were able to get into Don Bosco's heart, find themselves there, be enriched by it, enjoy it.
The Salesian educator is called above all to open his or her heart to the grace of the Risen Christ since only this way can we offer its depth and abundance to the young we meet.

Our journey so far has allowed us to identify some reference points and tasks for a correct, modern and effective application of Don Bosco's pedagogy.
The Preventive System is a spiritual and educational experience based on reason, religion and loving-kindness: these are essential for educational activity and valuable for the more humane society the new generations are waiting for
“Education is a thing of the heart and God is its master”, Don Bosco used say; he knew how to blend authority and kindness, love for God and love for the young.
An education that produces “good Christians and upright citizens” offers young people what they need to fully experience life as human beings and Christians.
Other points of reference and other tasks emerge for the Salesian educator once we have fully understood Don Bosco's pedagogy.
They come either from the Preventive System or from analysis of Don Bosco's writings, such as the three 'Lives' of Magone, Savio and Besucco and the Letter from Rome, 1884.
Other things belonging to Don Bosco's pedagogy are:
The “Gospel of joy which we accept and experience as an inner dynamic able to stand up to problems in life. Don Bosco, noting that young people want to be happy, showed that God was the true source of such happiness.
The Salesian educator nurtures certain attitudes which foster joy and communicate this joy to others:
• Trust that goodness wins out in the end;
• Appreciation of human values;
• Education to joy in daily life.
The pedagogy of kindness, a characteristic feature of Don Bosco's approach. Loving-kindness, the result of pastoral charity, is not merely a pedagogical principle but also an essential feature of Salesian spirituality. The Salesian educator must love the young and be loved by them.
Salesian humanism helps us perceive authentic values in the world, especially if the are ones the young people like; it helps us be part of the flow of culture and human development in our own times; helps us wisely seek the cooperation of many others, believe in the power of education, entrust ourselves to the providence of God whom we perceive and love as our Father.
And finally there is the inseparable connection between the Preventive System and human rights. The former offers the latter a unique, innovative educational approach, an anthropology inspired by the Gospel
Human rights offer the Preventive System new frontiers and opportunities for dialogue and cooperation in identifying and removing causes of injustice, iniquity and violence, as well as new horizons and opportunities for making a difference socially and culturally.

In the past, Salesian educational style has always aroused interest, and now in the present too. Someone asked Don Bosco how he educated his boys and he answered: “I bring them like like my mother brought us up at home. Other than that I can't say”.
The educational style practised in Valdocco had its roots at the Becchi. It was the widowed Mama Margaret who knew how to give her children the demanding love of a father and the kindly, freely given love of a mother.
It was from her and daily life at the Becchi that Don Bosco learned the values and attitudes which he then used with his own boys and pointed out to Salesians: a 'being-with' that makes the boy feel loved; tireless daily work; sense of God nurtured by piety and simple, genuine charity; reason which is synonymous with dialogue involving the young person in his own growth; shared work and life that mature into the valuable notion of Salesian assistance.
A Salesian in India sent me a poem.
It expresses very well what education is. It talks about a child growing up and learning certain attitudes by watching his mother.
I thought of how Don Bosco had learned by watching Mama Margaret every day, like when, for example, she dedicated her life as a widow to her children by refusing the chance to create a new family, or when she shared what little they had with the poor, or when she gave her trousseau in response to the cholera epidemic.
When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw you hang my first painting on the refrigerator and I immediately wanted to paint another one.
When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw you feed a stray cat, and I learned that it was good to be kind to animals.
When you thought I wasn't looking I saw you make my favorite cake for me and I learned that the little things can be the special things in life.
When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw you make a meal and take it to a friend who was sick and I learned that we all have to help take care of each other.
When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw you take care of our house and everyone in it and I learned we have to take care of what we are given.
When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw how you handled your responsibilities, even when you didn't feel well and I learned that I would have to be responsible when I grow up.
When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw tears come from your eyes and I learned that sometimes things hurt, but t's all right to cry.
When you thought I wasn't looking, I saw that you cared and I wanted to be everything that I could be.
When you thought I wasn't looking, I learned most of life's lessons that I need to know to be a good and productive person when I grow up.
When you thought I wasn't looking, I looked at you and
 wanted to say, "Thanks for all the things I saw when 
you thought I wasn't looking.
The important thing is to know how to touch someone's heart today. Let us live simply. Let us love generously. Let us look after people seriously. Let us speak kindly.

Like Don Bosco the educator, we offer young people the Gospel of joy through a pedagogy of kindness