it is true that history does not give us any recipe for the future (history isn ’t a project) it is equally true that im plem entation cannot m ake its ow n rules;
it m u st hav e a link w ith h isto ry (im p le m e n ta tio n is n o t s ta rtin g from scratch).
N ow , as we all know , D on B o s c o ’s P rev en tiv e S ystem is d ecid ed ly
“dated”, appropriate and tailored to a world that no longer exists; that it is alw ays up-to-date and relevant is not because it is constantly spoken about or w ritten about everyw here, but solely in so far as it is seriously put into practice (renew ed, “translated” decoded, inculturated, deepened, rethought, integrated, u p d a te d ...), in the light o f the m odern educational problem atic situations obviously unknow n to Don Bosco.
T his can happen under four conditions, tw o positive and tw o negative:
a. If the Preventive System is taken in its “historical" context, in refer- ence to its tim e, and hearing in m ind that the m eaning we children o f the
X X th century give to the X lX th century vocabulary o f Don B osco is al- m ost certainly not that given and understood by Don Bosco, his youngsters or his contem poraries.
b. If one takes account o f the progress m ade in the sciences w hich are involved, and especially o f the m any rev o lu tio n s that have changed the w orld, and w ith it young people.
c. If it is not m ade in to an ideology, th a t is tra n sla te d into sch em es w h ich m ake ab so lu te one a sp e c t as th o u g h it w ere the w h o le th in g : the P re v e n tiv e S ystem is sp iritu a lity , p a sto ral w ork, c a te c h e tic s, so cial as- s is ta n c e , s p o r t, p e d a g o g y , e d u c a tio n a l a s s is ta n c e a n d m a n y o th e r th in g s.
d. If there are not too m any "p ra c titio n e rs” , w ho “ in v en t” it to suit th eir ow n uses or re q u irem en ts, even perhaps on the basis o f q u ite out- of-d ate b io g rap h ies o r b ib lio g rap h ie s or even the tire d rep etitio n o f sim ple fo rm u las and sayings that are som etim es m isu n d ersto o d .
To sum up, an ticip atin g w hat I intend to say, it is a q u estio n on the part o f w orkers in the field and scholars, to d ev elo p the great p o ten tiali- ties o f the P reventive S ystem , to m odernise its p rin cip ies, co n cep ts, o rig inai g u id elin es, to re -in terp ret it on the th e o retical and p ractical levels both reg ard in g the g re at fun d am en tal ideas o f the P rev en tiv e S ystem that we all know (the g rea ter glory o f G od and the salvation o f souls; a lively faith, a firm hope, th eo lo g ical and pastoral ch arity ; the good C h ristian and the ho n est Citizen; joy, study, and piety; the three S [sanità, studio, san tità]; piety, m orality, culture, good m anners; ev an g elisatio n and civil- is a tio n ... ), and also the m ajo r guidelines reg ard in g m ethod (make yo u r
s e lf loved before — i f you wish, rather than - feared ; reason, religion, loving kindness', the fa th e r, b ro th e r, frie n d ; frie n d lin e s s e sp e c ia lly in recreatio n ; w inning ov er the heart; the ed u cato r co n secrated to the good o f the pupils; co m p lete freedom to ju m p , run and shout at w ill ...) . A nd all o f this fo r “new ” y oungsters, called to live in a huge uncharted sea o f situations and p roblem s, in d ecid ed ly changed tim es in w hich the hum an sciences th em selv es are going thro u g h a process o f reth in k in g th eir ow n position.
2. Two versions of preventative education
F or the first three key-ideas w e w ill start from w hat D on B osco w rote to the m ayor and the city authorities in Turin in an unpublished letter of
1846:
“In all these three places [in Turin] by means o f instruction, lessons, and recreation good behaviour, love for work, respect for the authorities and the laws according to the principies o f O ur Holy Catholic Religion are being constantly inculcated: there are Sunday Schools for the principies o f the Italian language, arithm etic and the m etric system [...] There is the intention o f opening a Hostel to receive 25 to 30 of the more abandoned and needy youngsters. So far everything is going ahead with the support of some zealous and charitable ecclesiastical and lay persons [...], with the aim [of this work] solely o f preventing the young people from falling a prey to idleness, disorder and irreligion” . (“Ricerche Storiche Salesiane” , 43, 2003, n. 2 pp.
343-344 ).
From the very beginning, Don B osco’s w hole approach dem onstrated characteristics that were o f a charitable, social and pedagogical nature. For Don Bosco the presupposition for any really authentic educational process is a concern to respond to and satisfy the basic needs o f the young: food, clothing, lodging, safety, work, physical and m ental developm ent, a place in society, a m inim um o f values etc. A fter that - though the two things are not chronologically separable - com es the education properly so-called of the youngster aim ed at the developm ent and expansion o f the aspects touching know ledge, affective and moral life: an ability to make decisions, to exer- cise moral and social responsibility, an indispensable basic culture and train
ing, the conscientious fulfilm ent o f religious duties, etc.
T herefore there are two distinet elem ents in the Preventive System : help in providing for prim ary basic hum an needs in an attem pt to prevent possi
ble dangers from straitened circum stances and every kind o f hum an, cultur
al and social m arginalisation; and a reai ed u cational (or re-ed u catio n al) p re v e n ta tiv e in te rv e n tio n fo r the so cial, m o ral an d re lig io u s m a tu rin g process o f the young person.
This is all very relevant today, considering how, follow ing the profound changes that have taken place in society, at present considerable em phasis is again being given to the social assistance aspects o f the Preventive Sys
tem as also those referring to a right appreciation o f values, naturai and su- pem atural, in the sphere o f affectivity and em otional life.
In com parison w ith Don Bosco the conditions in w hich the Preventive System is able to be practised and the w ays in w hich it is im plem ented have changed considerably. D on B o sco ’s educational purpose w as translat- ed into a variety o f activities that differed from those o f the present tim e (or at least w ere thought o f differently from today) and in w ays that re- quired a different approach; but alw ays w ithin a society that was basically hom ogeneous or considered to be, so that it was not too difficult to transfer the system to w orlds that w ere heterogeneous.
Today the educational role is becom ing m ore broad-based and the tasks o f the educator ever m ore difficult to carry out and to assess. If at one tim e there w ere ju st the playground, the church, the w ork shop, the classroom , today w e are faced w ith different kinds o f schools, o f educational and ther- apeutic institutions, reception centres and hostels for youngsters in difficul- ty, care centres for drug addicts, counselling services, projects fo r Street children, refugee cam ps w ith large num bers o f children and young people, reception centres for im m ig ran ts... And all this in a society that is m ore com plicated and cosm opolitan.
3. Greater “openings” for a preventative education
Don Bosco launched his project with the cooperation o f large groups o f people. In the utopia o f a w orld-w ide m ovem ent, he dream ed o f the collab- oration and the d o s e involvem ent o f all m ilitant C atholics, and o f all m en o f good will w ho w ere concerned about the future o f hum anity. In practice, how ever, his experience was, for the m ost part, that o f the institution: an
“in stitu tio n a l” system , closed, separate, n o n -p o litical, and au to n o m o u s, w here everything took place w ithin a precise self-su fficien t educational setting w here the recognised teachers were D on B osco and his “Sons” and w here there reigned a single sim ple culture: that o f the C atholic w orking classes, w hose only aspiration was to be able to provide for their earthly needs, in anticipation o f a heavenly reward for such a life.
Today, on the other hand, to be able to practice the Preventive System w hat seem s to be needed is the m axim um involvem ent, w ith the relevant moral responsibility, o f all the educational “operatore”, hopefully, o f all the adults w ho, in various capacities have an influence on the education o f the young and on th eir ability to m ake decisions ab o u t th eir lives: p arents, teachers, educators, assistants and social health w orkers, politicians,
econo-m ists, ad econo-m in istra to rs at all lev els, e d u catio n al ag en cies and o rg an isers, people ru nning the m ass m edia, cu ltu ral, sporting, recreatio n al associa- tions, religions, churches.
To take full advantage o f thè educational role o f such a galaxy o f adults an educational project/plan is necessary, one that takes into account ethical guidelines, ju rid ical structures, econom ie grants, structures capable o f co- ordination, netw orking effectively, all the active forces ready to m ake their contribution to the hum an developm ent o f youth. M aking alliances, sharing strategies, tim etables, m ethods, all this creates not a few problem s, bearing in m ind the lack o f hom ogeneity and the differences there are am ong the forces in question. But is a conditio sine qua non in order to gath er the fruits o f our educational efforts.
4. A new anthropological and theologieal foundation for “honest citizen and good Christian”
Don B osco’s Preventive System is based on a view o f m an, o f the Citi
zen and o f the C hristian that is traditional, sim ple, belonging to an histori- cal era that is no longer ours and w hich today reveals all its lim itations.
The honest citizen o f the third m illennium is no longer the sort o f person understood by Don Bosco, a man o f a tim e in which any kind o f “politicai activity” w as not dream ed of, except as the occupation o f a rich and privi- leged minority, which the poor preadolescents and adolescents o r the w ork
ing classes in his houses w ould have undertaken w ith difficulty. N or is it the sort o f person who, in the analysis and evaluation o f the problem s o f so
cial need, tends, as D on B osco did, to find the causes solely in the moral and religious responsibility o f individuals and not in the conditioning and determ ining factors o f an econom ie, politicai, social or juridical nature etc.
N or is it the person w ith the rather passive attitude who obeys the laws, doesn’t cause any trouble to the authorities and is only interested in things that concem him. The transition from absolute m onarchy to a liberal parlia- m entary system , first o f all, and then to dem ocracy; the rise o f the “social question” w ith socialism , m arxism , trade unionism , the social doctrine o f the C hurch, the dem and everyw here for an active and dem ocratic citizen- ship etc have certainly left their m ark. In a sim ilar w ay that nowadays the im placable advance o f pluralism , of globalisation, o f m odern Inform ation technologies and w idespread m ulti-cultural situations are leaving theirs.
F rom the same points o f view, it is clear that the good Christian o f to
day is no longer the sort understood by Don B osco and m any others like him: w ith only a m inim um o f religious education, habitual reception o f the sacram ents, devotions to the saints as m odels and ideals o f the C hristian life, reading only “good” books, practising absolute obedience to the legiti- m ate ecclesiastical authorities w ithin the one ark o f salvation (the C atholic C hurch), and a life o f progress in virtue that w ould then be happily con- cluded w ith a virtuous death. A century o f theological thinking and a Sec
ond Vatican C ouncil would have com e and gone in vain and the m ulti-reli- gious and m ulti-confessional state o f today’s w orld w ould have m ade no im pact if this were the case.
It is n e c e ssa ry th e re fo re to accep t th a t th e w e ll-k n o w n fo rm u la o f
“honest citizens and good C h ristian s” today reshaped on both the anthro- pological and theological levels, has to be rein terp reted historically and politically.
A new anthropology w ould have to identify am ong the traditional val
ues those w hich are to be em phasised in a post-m odem society, and those new ones w hich, on the other hand, need to be proposed; a theological re- evaluation would need to determ ine the relationship betw een faith and pol- itics, betw een differen t faiths; a new h isto rical-p o litical an aly sis w ould need to com bine education and politics, education and social com m itm ent, politics and civil society. In other words it w ould need to respond to the follow ing questions:
• w hat does it m ean, at the daw n o f the third m illennium , to be a “ m an”,
“w om an”, “young person”, “C hristian” , “m em ber o f the church” ?
• w hat does the concept going back two hundred years “duties o f the Citi
zen” m ean today? Can the m odern concept o f m oral and social “respon- sibility” be translated - and in w hat way - on a supernatural level?
• in a secularised, pluralistic, m ulti-ethnic and m ulti-religious context, is the subordination o f tem poral ends to transcendent ones, o f the pre-em i- nence o f individuai values to social ones, o f religious factors in relation to earthly ones, thè C atholic elem ent in relation to those sim ply C hrist
ian or not even C hristian, o f E uropean “v alues” in relation to those be- longing to other areas in the w orld stili acceptable today?
• how does one overcom e the alm ost total absence in Don B osco’s experi
ence - who w ith the intention o f form ing good citizens tended to “re
m ove" the pupils from daily contact with what was going on outside the Salesian house - o f a reai education in the “social” and “politicai” fields?
• how in this m odern w orld does o ne fili in the e v id e n t gaps in Don B o sco ’s Preventive System in the question o f educating young people in the area o f ajfectivity, o f sexuality, o f human love, given that, accord- ing to the practice o f the tim e it was being applied in a single sex envi- ronm ent, and there w as alw ays great em phasis on reticence aim ed at sim ple self-control and “ silence” , even though “loving k indness” had been m ade one o f its corner stones?
5. Pedagogical and psychological concerns
L ooking back over 20 years w orking w ith the young, D on B osco wrote in 1862:
“To understand the results obtained from these schools, from the Oratories and from the house known as the O ratory o f St. Francis o f Sales it is necessary to divide the students into three categories: difficult and disobedient, easily distracted, and good.
The good ones remain good and make rem arkable progress. The easily distracted, those already accustom ed to w andering about, working little, also make a success o f things w ith care, assistance, instruction and being kept occupied. The difficult and disobedient ones then take a lot o f hard work; if you can give them something o f a taste for work, for the most part they are won over. U sing the m ethods men- tioned, results such as the follow ing can be obtained: 1° they don’t get any worse:
2° many o f them becom e sensible and are able to earn an honest crust; 3° those who, while one keeps an eye on them, seem to rem ain indifferent, with time be
come more docile, if not entirely, at least to a fair extent. Time will teli w hether they put into practice the good principies they have been taught” . (Piccola Bibliote
ca d ell’ISS, n. 9, pp. 74-75).
In describ in g the differen t kinds o f y oungsters D on B osco norm ally m akes use o f the short form ulae m entioned here, alm ost exclusively as the fruit o f his ow n personal experience. N ot being able to m ake use o f the psycho-sociological sciences, then in their infancy, not having undertaken specialist personal studies on the subject, his fram e o f referen ce fo r the analysis o f the society in w hich he lived w as devoid o f technical criteria.
He w as “consecrated” to the education o f the individuai youngsters, m ost o f them brought into his institute and therefore “protected” on the physical, psychological, intellectual and spiritual piane.
Today all those w ho w ish to practise the Preventive System need to re
fer to a theoretical fram ew ork that is extensive and w ell organised, suited to the requirem ents o f our days. O ne need only think o f the areas that com e to m ind w hen one talks about: anthropological m utations, deconstruction o f thought, a universal ethical code, tolerance, globalisation, interdepend- ence, inter-culturation, pluri-ethnicity, new paideia.
N o w a d a y s it is p o s s i b l e to h a v e I n f o r m a tio n a b o u t th e y o u th scen e/state o f y o uth - chan g eab le and d iv ersified th ough the situations and problem s may be - thanks to sophisticated m ethods o f research, and o f social and psychological analysis. This data tells us that the period o f youth has becom e extended beyond m easure, th at given the present situa- tion o f young people and the context o f conflict in w hich they are grow ing up, alm ost all the young people in the w orld could be considered “aban- doned” , “in danger and «dangerous» (= at risk )” as D on B osco w ould say.
O ne could say the sam e about the effective “p o ten tiality ” o f the infant, child, teenager, adolescent, youngster, young adult fo r w hom thè ed u c a
tional process is intended.
It fo llo w s th a t th ere is thè p o ssib ility o f a g re a te r in d iv id u a lisa tio n process in relation to the effective “freedom ” o f the one being educated, to his dem ands for autonom y in choosing objectives and the m eans to reach them , to the “energies” w ith w hich he is endow ed (vitality, ideals. desires, as well as anxieties, contradictions, rights, passions) w hich need to be re- spected and assisted to develop w ith helps and m eans adapted to the differ
ent stages o f life. It is then alw ays to be hoped that there will be a m ore positive appreciation and a m ore explicit use m ade o f the inner energies o f the young person, w ith greater recourse to the autonom y o f the person and o f the group in a process o f educational cooperation. T here w ould also fol- low greater attention being given to the educational pluralism in w hich the young people are grow ing up.
6. Holiness and salvation
In D on B o sc o ’s p e d a g o g ic a l theology, the sa lv atio n o f souls is the g u id in g fo rc e th a t is at the h e art o f his a c tiv itie s and h is e d u c a tio n a l m ethod, in co m p lete harm ony w ith the n in eteen th cen tu ry p asto ral ap- proach w hich m ade concern for salvation a categorical im perative in o n e ’s activities.
The ultim ate aim o f Don B osco’s Preventive System o f education - which today we would describe as living a hum an life that is at the same time per
sonal, social and religious - is historically expressed in the classic phrase “the salvation o f souls” . That is the goal o f a long joum ey begun on this earth, through a life o f grace which the Church guarantees, which can develop, even to heroic levels, in the love o f God and o f o ne’s neighbour. In this case we
sonal, social and religious - is historically expressed in the classic phrase “the salvation o f souls” . That is the goal o f a long joum ey begun on this earth, through a life o f grace which the Church guarantees, which can develop, even to heroic levels, in the love o f God and o f o ne’s neighbour. In this case we