Elements o f youth psychology

To understand Don B osco’s Preventive System we should also keep in mind the follow ing items, the age bracket o f the young people he dealt with and to whom the Preventive System was preferably applied, under his immediate or mediated direction;

the age o f the boys frequenting the festive oratories in Turin and the complex institution that was V aldocco’s O ratory; the age o f those attending the boarding schools at Mirabello Monferrato, later transferred to Borgo San Martino, Lanzo Torinese, Alassio and Varazze, G enoa-Sam pierdarena,N ice and Marseilles.

2.1 Growingup

As a rule, in the majority o f the works Don Bosco founded, the prevailing interest was in teenagers, a more extended age group for festive oratories, schools and boarding schools, including those in the final years o f adolescence. Exceptions were m ade even during Don B osco’s lifetime for students in the boarding schools at Alassio and Valsalice, as well as the pre-university institution set up by Fr Lasagna at Villa Colon (Montevideo).

39 BS 6 (1882) no. 4, Aprii, p. 70. Similar presentation o f youth especially those who m oved to Rome: BS 8 (1884) no. 1, Jan. p. 2; conference to Roman Cooperatore 8 May, BS 8 (1884) no.

6, June, p. 88; in darkertones and described in a conference in Turin on June 1 ,1 8 8 5 , youth in Paris “the big capitai o f France w ith 2 m illio n inhabitants” : BS 9 (1885) no. 7, July, p. 95.

“•«B S 9 ( 1 8 8 5 ) no. 7, J u ly ,p .95.

41 Cf. letter to Dr. Carranza, Buenos Aires, 30 Sept 1877, E III 221 ; conference to Copperators in Lucca, Aprii 8, 1882, BS 6 (1882) no. 5, May, p. 81; address to the Catholic A ssociation in Barcelona, Aprii 15, 1886, C. Viglietti, C ronaca dal 15 aprile al 16 m aggio 1886, p. 5

The age range, in reference to young w orking boys was m uch w ider and less strictly defined.42 So summing up, Don Bosco’s pedagogy is a youth-oriented pedagogy where the term s ‘y oung’, ‘youth’ are given a rather wide connotation. But in overall num bers and attention, they were m ostly teenagers. It is for boys o f the 15-16 year- old bracketthat Don Bosco wrote ‘Lives’ or biographical stories ofboys, which were one o f the basic tools Don Bosco used to pass on his educational experience and pedagogical reflections/13

The follow ing norm, generally put into practice, is found in the ‘Rules for Day Students’:

We are looking for eight-year-olds, so smaller boys are excluded, along with those who cause a lot o f trouble and are unable to understand what we are teaching them,44

The Rules fo r the Houses notably restricts the age limit when it established that the pupil “must have completed his gram m ar school”45 as a condition for acceptance, In practice though, m ost o f the boarding schools for students had a gram m ar school program in place or at least the last two years o f gram m ar school. Ultimately, m o sto f the institutions (oratories, hom es, boarding schools) were open to boys w hose age w ent from childhood to early and late adolescence so from approxim ately 8 to l 8 years o f age, but probably m ost were betw een 12 and 16.

As far as the term inology used by Don Bosco in his talks and in his writings is concerned, there is some inevitable variation. Italian and Latin: fanciulli, fanclullini, giovani, giovanetti, pueri, adolescentes, adulescentuli, juvenes (children, little children, adolescents, in generai terms) were generally inter-changeable. Only fanciullo, giovanetto appear to be distinet, as they designate boys from the age o f 8 to 11.

The booklet on The Work o f M ary Help o f Christians fo r Vocations to the Ecclesiastical State Created in the Home o f St Vincent de Paul at Sampierdarena

42 At the Oratory at Valdocco, the average age o f students w as 13-14, working boys, 14-15;

c f P. S tella D on B osco nella sto ria econom ica...

43 What Albert C aviglia writes, however, is excessive: “M ost pedagogues and educational writers turned their attention to children between 6 and 12 years o f age. The problem o f progress was the primary, elementary schools (as w ell as kindergarten, the Aporti case); In Italy they were w ay behind. N o w what Our man was concerned about and acted on behalf of, those he called ‘you th ’, ‘young lads’, are not children but precisely those who worked with, from 12 years on... This w as another o f Don B o sco ’s great merits, in having found, 1 iteraily, the right w ay to educate teenagers” . (A. Caviglia, La «Storia d ’Italia» a masterpiece by Don B osco. Introductory address, in O pere e sc ritti ed iti e in editi di «Don Bosco», voi III La Storia d ’ttalia. Turin, SEI 1935, pp. XLII-XLIII); «Don Bosco anche letterariam ente ha risolto il p ro b le m a d ella p e d a g o g ia d e l l ’adolescente» (p. XLIV).

44 R egolam ento d e l l’O atorio...per g li estern i, part II, Chap II, art. 3, p. 30. OE X X IX 60.

45 Regolam ento p e r le case..., part II, Chap II, art.9, p. 62. OE XXIX 158.

seem s to m ake a broad distinction between young adults or big boys or bigger boys (giovani adulti, o grandicelli o p iù grandicelli), from 16 to 30 years o f age, and children (fanciulli), little children (piccolini).46

2.2 Features of youth psychology

We should not expect from Don Bosco a scientific study o f age ranges which would allow us to clearly distinguish various developmental stages. However, at times som e o f the features pointed out by Don B osco can be connected w ith one developmental stage rather than another. It is especially important to remarle that Don B osco’s perception o f the psychology o f the young for whom he worked was strictly connected with his view o f pastoral and pedagogical activity as a whole.

In definingthe features pro p erto youth, Don Bosco ended up using descriptive terms but ones which also evaluated things positively or negatively according to how a young person w as ready for education or according to the requirements o f salvation.

Don Bosco seemed to link the inorai and religious aspeets o f these features with judgem ent that w as more negative than positive, and considered features in need o f correction rather than ones that could be employed. Often enough youthfulness was implicitly compared with adulthood. For instance, the incompleteness o f youth contrasts with the completeness o f adulthood; the fickleness o f youth with the poise o f adulthood;

youthful lack o f reflection with adult w isdom ; fickle youth with em otionally stable adults.47 Naturally, other terms are not omitted which point to positive elem ents like availability, and positive potential such as sensitivity, impressionability and ‘heart’.

M ore num erous and reflective rem arks appear tim e and again in the pages o f the 1877 ‘Preventive System ’. Sim ilar rem arks can be found in the w ritings going back to the 1840s and in particular the Companion o f Youth, and they are repeated and enriched in the ‘Lives’ written during the 1850s and 60s.

The pages written in 1877 convey, first o f all, what Don Bosco thought was the dom inant feature o f the youthful age, and the m ost decisive reason for adopting the Preventive System:

46 S. Pier d ’Arena, St Vincent de Paul Press and Book shop 1877, p. 4,5,25, OE X XIX 4 ,5 ,2 5 . Cf. also Op e r a di M aria A u silia trice p e r le vo c a zio n i allo sta to ecclesiastico. Fossano, Saccone Press, s.d. [=1875]: “The purpose o f this Work is to bring together young men... Each pupil must belong to an upright family, be healthy, robust, o f good character, between 16-30 years old”; also in this edition, fan ciu lli and p ic co lin i were contrasted with giovani grandicelli:

pp 2-5, OE X X V II2-5.

47 Cf. J. Scheppens, Les structures d ep e n sé, notam m ent théologiques, so u s-jacentes à la p ra tiq u e p é d a g o g iq u e de don B osco, in È du cation e t p é d a g o g ie ch ez don Bosco. Paris, Éditions Fleurus 1989, pp, 148-155. “Jean B osco définit donc lui aussi lesjeu n es com m e des etres faibles et inconstants, marqués par la fragilité morale et la versatilité” (p. 150).

The primary reason for this system is the thoughtlessness o f the young, who in one moment forgetthe rules o f discipline and the penalties for their infringement.

Consequently a child often becomes culpable and deserving o f punishment, which he had not even thought about and which he had quite forgotten when heedlessly committing thè fault he would certainly have avoided, had a friendly voice warned him.48

This feature is strictly connected with a second typical feature: lack o f experience, immaturity, and as a consequence, la c k o f consideration and laclcof prudence. For Don Bosco youth, taken in the widest sense, is by defmition “dangerously inexperienced”

and therefore “unstable” and “careless” 49 Therefore, youth can easily be trapped by snares o f all kinds and from all sources: from thè devii, bad com panions, gaudy or alluringly presented things, temptations, freedom, heresy. It is mainly for this reason that youth is “an age exposed to dangers w hich can be found in every social circumstance”.50 ‘ Which children should be considered at risk’ is the title o f a paragraph w ritten in a m em o on thè Preventive System and handed to Francesco Crispi in February o f 1878.51

The very root o f yo uth’s thoughtlessness can be found in an innate lack o f organisation which afifects youth’s psychological existence and precedes any kind o f educational intervention. “Youngsters, just because they lack instruction and reflection allow themselves, often blindly, to be dragged by some o f their friends or by their lack o f reflection into bad behaviour, simply they have been neglected”.52

C onnected w ith this is a characteristic trait “w hich Don Bosco repeated tim e and again: Young people are flighty, unable to keep to their com m itm ents, fragile, easily get tired, are ju s t as easily discouraged as they becom e enthusiastic about something”.53

48 II sistem a p reven tivo (1877), p. 48, OE X X V III426.

49 Cf. Fatti contemporanei esposti in forma di dialogo. Turin, D e-A gostini 1853, p. 3, OE V 53; Lo spazzacammino. Turin Oratory o f St Francis de Sales Press 1866, p. 62, O E X V I I 174; II Galantuomo. Alm anacco per il 1873. Turin Oratory o f St Francis de Sales Press 1872, p. 5 ,O E X X V 5; “remove fickle and careless young people from sin”; G. Bosco, Severino ossia avventure di un g iovan e alpigiano. Turin Oratory o f St Francis de Sales Printshop 1868, p. 4, OE X X 4;

“Le m ìe sciagu re servan o a d altri d 'a v viso p e r a vìta re g li sc o g li che conducano alla rovin a tanta in esperta gioventù"; BS 2 (1878) no 3, March, p. 12, lq3.

50 G. B osco. L a fo r z a della buona educazione... p. 55, OE VI 329.

51 Cf. Il sistem a preven tivo ( 1878), RSS 4 ( 1985) 301 -302.

52 II sistem a p re ve n tivo (1878), RSS 9 (1985) 300; goin g to the prisons Don B osco had noticed that “a great number o f children considered their punishment less than the fact they were abandoned and not given consideration” (G. B osco L 'O ra to rio di S. F rancesco d i Sales ospizio dì beneficenza. Turin, Saiesian Press 1879. p. 3, OE X X I 259.

53 P. Stella, Don B osco n ella sto ria della relig io sità ca tto lic a , Voi II, p. 190.

In the life o f St Dominio Savio, Don Bosco writes: “It is a particular trait o f youth to be flighty, namely to easily change one’s resolve about w hat one wants to achieve;

and it is not a thing that happens seldom. Today a young man decides to do one thing and the next day he does another one; today he practices virtue to an em inent degree and the next day, he does ju st the opposite”.54

Naturally, this tum s out to be even more evident when a young man has to face something which demands seriousness and commitment: this is the case with religion, piety, study, work and discipline.

In the Life o f Besucco, Don Bosco emphasises how diffìcult it is for a youngster to “ learn how to have a taste for prayer. Their fìckle age causes them to see anything w hich dem ands serious mental attention as som ething nauseating and even as an enorm ous weight”.55

All that w e have m entioned above goes back to a deeper and ambivalent reality with a theological and psychological sense to it. According to Don Bosco virtue, religion, the realm o f grace are also sources o f happiness. In the Companion o f Youth, following a widespread ascetic type o f literature fo rthe young, both in his own time and earlier, Don Bosco emphasised one extremely problematic aspect o f human nature and ofthe nature o f a young person. We cannot teli w hether Don B osco m eans to refer to a healthy nature or a nature wounded by sin, because at this juncture Don Bosco does not seem to notice such a distinction.56 Any way, according to Don Bosco, the human being and m ore clearly so the young m an seem s to be born to rejoice; o f his very nature a human being, a young man longs for joy, entertainment, pleasure. This tendency seem s to enter into conflict with happiness and its sources. As a m atter o f fact, so Don Bosco continues, “If I teli one o f my children to receive the Sacraments frequently, to pray each day, the answ er I get is: I have som ething else to do, I have w ork to do, or I have to have fun”.57

There is another characteristic feature instead, w hich Don Bosco notes and sees mostly from a positive angle: youngsters need to move about, have life, free rein for their physical, intellectual, emotional and moral energies, There is a fundamental precept connected with this feature. Itw as inspired by St Philip Neri butem ployed by

54 G. B osco, Vita del g io va n etto S avio D om en ico allievo dell ' O ratorio di San F rancesco di Sales. Turin, G.B. Pravia & Co. 1859, p. 37, OE X I 187.

55 G, B o sc o , Il p a s to r e llo d e lle A lp i o vv ero Vita d e l g io v a n e B e su cco F ra n c esc o d ’A rgentera. Turin, Oratory o f St Francis de Sales Press 1864, pp. 113-114, O E X V 355-356.

56 P. Stella, D on B osco nella sto ria della re lig io sità cattolica. Voi II p. 188 57 G. B osco, Il g iovan e provvedu to... p. 33 OE I I 213.

Don Bosco in language and educational praxis that makes it a construct o f exceptional value: “ Let them have am ple freedom to jum p, to run, to shout as they w ish” .58

There are other innate qualities found in the young and they are entirely positive.

Don Bosco sees them and enjoys describing them as they are found in Michael Magone, the typical young lad, not only from a pedagogical point o f view but especially from thè perspective o f a basic psychological structure, prior to any serious moral damage:

his liveliness, spontaneity, inborn tendency to like what is good, unconsciously oriented towards true happiness.

N aturally lively yet pious, good and devout, he thought a lot o f the sm allest practices o f piety. He practised them cheerfully, freely and easily, without scruples: on account ofh is piety, study and congenial nature he was loved and respected by all; on account o fh is liveliness and good m anners he was the idol ofrecreation tim e.59

Even after thè premonition that he was soon the going to die, Michael M agone’s

“cheerfulness and joviality were not changed in the least”.60

There is another feature added to the ones m entioned above: youth has an inner vitality w hich is expressed by a rem arkable im pressionability and receptivity, both emotionally and perceptively. Don Bosco deals explicitly with this feature, when he expres^es his view s on thè educative and moral aspects o f the theatre.

“We maintain that youngsters hold on to impressions o f things vividly presented, in their heart, and neither reason nor contrary facts can convince them to easily forget them”.61

Impressionability may have some negative aspects but it is taken mainly from its positive side, as Don Bosco him self rem arks w hen he talks about the happy crisis faced by Josephine, the chief character in a play called The Conversion ofa Wctldesian Lady. “Youth, so long as it is not thè slave to vice, lingers only m omentarily on other things, but the precepts o f religion and especially eternai principies produce the keenest impression on youth”.62

W hat follows are two overall fundamental dimensions o f youth psychology, which embrace the entire personality o f the young and have an impact on thè entire educational system . They can be noticed especially in boys throughout their teenage years and can be properly directed tow ards a m o re m ature youth. They are: a very keen sense

58 II sistem a p re ve n tivo (1877), p. 54 OE XXVIII 432. This outline responds to a true

“p edagogy o f jo y and festivity”; c f chap. 16.

59 G. B osco, C enno biografico su l g io va n etto M agone M ichele allievo deli ’O ratorio di S. F rancesco dì Sales. Turin, G B . Paravia & Co. 1861, p. 66 OE X III220.

60 G. B osco Cenno biografico su l giovan etto M agone.... p, 68, OE XIII 222.

61 R egolam ento p e r le case... part I Chap XVI D e l teatrin o, p. 50 OE X X IX 146.

62 G. B osco C on version e di una valdese. F atto contem poraneo. Turin, P. D e-A gostini Priess 1854, p. 27, O E V 2 8 5 .