The Preventive System in infant schools

Ferrante Aporti (1791 -1858) does not only think o f education as prevention but explicitly uses the ‘Preventive System ’ in his education, “The ability o f an educator” , he declares, “does not consist so m uch in being able to prudently punish children’s m istakes as in being able to prevent them from happening. There is no com parison betw een the m erit o f an educator w ho know s only how to provide a remedy for the harm being done and the merit o f one who knows how to prevent the harm from being done” .65

60 Ibid.,426; cf. 429-430 (and 438-439 on the value o f recreation, also for working some things out about the girls)

61 Ibid., 429; c f426-431.

62 Ibid., 435.

63 Ibid., 437.

64 Ibid., 413-414.

65 Elementi di pedagogia, in F. Aporti, Scritti pedagogici, voi 2, 114.

Angiolo Gambaro adds the following com m ent to the above:

In a few words, Aporti highlights the great superiority o f the Preventive System over the repressive. This superiority is recognized by educators and pedagogues who are carefully concerned that love be the very foundation o f education.

These educators and pedagogues are concerned about creating a peaceful atmosphere, one o f goodness, persuasive activity around the child, to naturally lead him to what is good and avoid everything that distances him or makes him a victim o f some offence or rebellious or discourages him” . The practical development o f the preventive method revealed its marvellous effectiveness in Don Bosco’s educational practice.66

It is actually possible to discover the essential features o f a complete Preventive System in Aporti’s educational and teaching method. In fact, “provided it is possible it is better to stay healthy than to allow oneself to get sick just to be healed. The reason is that health resulting from being healed always has the tendency to fall ill again” .67 We find the w ell-know n constitutive elem ents o f education: assistance, affection, charity, and loving kindness, reasonableness, joy, singing, recreation, movement. Even for an intellectual education to be successful the recourse to strongly affective elements was needed. This was the first am ong the m any maxims dedicated to teaching: “ Win over the affection and trust o f children first o f all” .

There is no doubt that an objective is m ore easily and securely achieved by kindness. The educator, once he has the affection o f his pupils, will succeed in having the pupils try their best to please him in attention and behaviour; they will not be bored or turned off, but will find satisfaction and delight in the learning process. However, the educator should be careful enough not to confuse gentleness, loving kindness, affability in dealing with children with the familiarity which might lower the value of authority. He should be a kind and loving father but still alw ays graciously authoritative” .68Elsewhere Aporti added “strong persuasion and affection”, 69 “loving kindness” and reasonable behaviour” .70

66 Ibid., 114-115, n. 1.

67 Letter to C. Boneompagni on June 3 0 ,1838, in A. Gambaro, Ferrante Aporti e g li asili,

voi 2,397.

68 Elementi di pedagogia, in F. Aporti, Scritti pedagogici,voi 2, 85.

69 Lezioni di metodicain the Turin course 1844, in F. Aporti, Scrìtti pedagogici,voi 2,442.

According to Lemoyne, Don Bosco, given the task by the archbishop, would have been at Apporti’s lessons (MB 2, 212-214): the judgements Fr Cerutti attributed to Don Bosco concerning the pedagogue appear to be completely unfounded and unjust.

70 Manuale dì educazione ed ammaestramento,in F. Aporti, Scritti pedagogici,voi 1,36.

The lectures on method, given in Turin, are full o f references to affectivity.

The two principles which create good method are: 1 .Take into account the nature, character and developm ent o f the child ’s faculties, 2. O ne’s own experience and the experiences o f others, drawn from the implementation o f pre-established rules... Among the principles drawn from consideration o fth e nature o f the child and from experience, first place should be given to the im portance o f winning over the affection o f children. We should bear in mind that the means most suitable for achieving kindness is kindness. Contempt breeds contempt. We love those who treat us with loving kindness, not those who treat us with contem pt... To whom do children show affection? To the ones who welcome them, show that they love them and do well to them. Jesus Christ gives all o f us a great example o f this. The Apostles, not yet enlightened by the Holy Spirit, wanted to keep children away from Jesus and Jesus prevented them from doing this - to the contrary, he w elcom ed them w ith kind w ords...N ow , realising that children love those who love them, the educator should be concerned about showing them kindness and showing them, at every opportunity, a sincere eagerness to care for their moral and physical good., .This will be the end result: a child who recognises his teacher’s affection in order to please his teacher will be well behaved and will study. This did not ordinarily happen when severe punishments were used together with the stick, in place o f human, conciliatory and kind means. The former method humiliated and hurt without correcting. While recommending that the teacher should win his pupils’

love and confidence through his ways o f dealing with them we should also let the teacher know that he should not exaggerate to the point where affection and confidence may turn into familiarity. The teacher should welcome every child with kindness but never joke with them, never lower him self to their level, never place him self in a situation where the students m ight lack respect for him and he might lose authority over them.71

This is a new w ay o f acting as a teacher. “And w hat should the teachers o f such a tender age be like? To anyone who would like to take on such a very important and unenviable role, I say: let him be completely fatherly towards his pupils. If he does not do this, if he is unable to do it he will never succeed in educating them reasonably.

The reason is that to be successful in such a noble undertaking, it is essential to have a fa th e r’s patience, becom e a child once again in order to m eet them at the level o f their intelligence, to provide lively and cheerful instruction, respond with kindness to all their questions, to caress them from time to tim e in order to soften the difficulties they have with their work. Summing up, an educator should live with them like a wise

71 Lezioni di metodica, in F. Aporti, Scritti pedagogici, Voi 2,440-441.

friend, like a counsellor and director and should love them as he loves his own children”72

The them e o f love is considered so essential that Aporti stresses it even when he explains the m ethod o f teaching arithmetic:

Furthermore, what concerns me even more, according to my inner convictions, is that the teacher should try his best to also direct his teaching towards education o f the heart. As long as a teacher restricts himself to giving knowledge and developing the intellectual faculties o f his pupil, he will be admired for his precision, for all the life he has been able to put into his work, but 1 will be never be happy with him. I would also say that I feel sorry for him because I would have only found a teacher who can teach language or the ABC while I, society and religion expect and have the right to expect him to be an educator who is able to warm the hearts o f his pupils by enlightening their minds and while sharing instruction is able to improve his pupils’ lives” .73

The Infant school thus becomes the school for children without a family or with an inept family. It becomes a “domestic” world where they feel enveloped by the light o f knowledge and the warmth o f lov e.,. .’’Since they have no family, which is a powerful m eans o f doing good and restraining from evil, it is essential to create a fam ily for them which, through wise guidance, fervent and sincere kindness, may arouse a moral sense in them and strengthen it. The purpose o f this activity is to reconcile them and create strong ties w ith society using the sublim e and generous principles o f natural and religious charity” .7,1 Inserted into this dynam ic is the intuitive, objective and dem onstrative m ethod w hich fosters “the gradual developm ent o f the powers o f the mind and heart” .75 This development takes place within an educational context where

“the studies are dealt with as though they w ere am usem ents and gam es”, where

“occasional moderate movement”76 is favoured and “where singing is promoted, also

11 Elementi di pedagogia, in F. Aporti, Scritti pedagogici, Voi 2 ,5 0 - 5 1. Fear, “rigour, lack o f loving kindness” are, for Apporti, “ sufficient reason for destroying the children’s desire to go to school” (Lezioni di metodica, in F. Aporti, Scritti pedagogici, Voi 2 ,4 4 2 ).

73 Lezioni di metodica, in F. Aporti, Scritti pedagogici, voi 2 ,4 5 0 .

74 Statistica degli asili e delle scuole di infanzia 1849, in F. Aporti, Scritti pedagògici, voi 1,376-377.

75 F. Aporti, Rapporto sull'esito degli esami sostenuti dopo il 2" semestre 1830 dagli alunni dell 'Asilo a pagamento, Sept. 2 4 ,1 8 3 0 , in A. Gambaro, Ferrante Aporti e gli asili, voi 2, 21.

76 F. Aporti, Piano di educazione ed ammaestramento pei fanciulli da ll’età dei 2 ‘A ai 6 anni, June 1 5 ,1 8 3 0 , in A. Gambaro, Ferrante Aporti e gli asili, voi 2 ,1 1 .

to train the vocal chords and the hearing ability o f children, because children love to hum tunes” .77

Aporti describes the results o f this m ethod in a report which first came out on Septem ber 2 4 ,1 8 3 0 . “ Satisfaction increases w hen one considers that the children enrolled in this school are more cheerful, w ell-behaved, content and sociable: their schooling leads them to recognise an initial step to the practice o f a kind way o f behaving”.78