Prevention, not repression
Chapter 6 Don Bosco’s pedagogical originality
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- A biographical outline
- 2. Reconstructing Don Bosco’s Preventive System: sources
- 2.1. Don Bosco, Christian Apostle of the young
- 2.2 Life’s integrating role in any reconstruction of the Preventive System
- 2.3 Relationship between stability and innovation in the Preventive System
- 3. Don Bosco, educator and author of pedagogical literature
Chapter 6
With some degree of emphasis and not without reason, a priest from the Fermo diocese wrote the following in 1886: Don Bosco has already been sacrificing his life for the education and instruction of the young for fifty years. The results of his work are so gratifying and so widespread that Don Bosco has become the most famous educator of his times, both in the old and in the new world. What has contributed to his fame is his Preventive System.444 It makes no sense to indulge in rhetoric, but the fact is obvious enough that Don Bosco appeared to many of his contemporaries and even later, as an exceptional educator, the emerging representative of the Preventive System in the education of youth. However, this does not mean ignoring the fine and original contributions of past educators and those of his time as well.445 C. Danna had a keen intuition, from the outset, of the originality of Don Bosco’s educational experience. A professor of literature at the University of Turin, Danna, already in 1849, had written two passionate pages on the Oratory, on Don Bosco’s Sunday school. Those two pages underlined the religious and civic nature as well as the holistic educational and cheerful features of the Oratory. On Sundays and feast days Don Bosco gathers some four or five hundred youngsters over the age of 8 in an out-of-the-way compound, to keep them from danger and just hanging around, and to teach them the principles of Christian morality. He does this by entertaining them with delightful and honest amusements after they have attended pious and religious practices. He also teaches them social and ecclesiastical history, catechism and the principles of arithmetic. He trains them to use the metric system and those who do not know how to are taught how to read and write. All this is done to provide the youngsters with a moral and civic education. But he does not fail to provide them with a physical education as well: a fenced-off playground next to the Oratory allows the young to get involved in gymnastics, play with stilts, swings, skittles or quoits. And this is done to help them grow and strengthen their physical capacities. Besides prizes of some holy pictures, lotteries and at times a light breakfast, the bait used to draw the huge crowd of youngsters is Don Bosco’s own calm approach, always vigilant over the young souls, ready to shed the light of truth on them and show them how to love one another. Thinking about the harm he avoids, the vices forestalled, the seeds of virtue sown, the good which is so fruitful, it seems incredible that Don Bosco’s work might have met with obstacles and even opposition. But what most of all grants Don Bosco the right to the gratitude of all citizens is the home next to the Oratory which is open to the most needy and destitute children. When Don Bosco knows of or meets some child who is a victim of poverty, squalid conditions, he never loses sight of him, takes him into his home, restores him, asks him to take off his filthy clothes and gives him new ones to put on. He provides food for him day and night until he finds some employment and some work for him to do, so he may earn a decent livelihood in the future and can take better care of educating his mind and heart.446 On the day of the celebration of Don Bosco’s month ‘s mind, the Archbishop of Turin, Cardinal Cajetan Alimonda, gave considerable room to Don Bosco’s educational system in his eulogy on that occasion. “Education”, he said, was “the first area where Don Bosco brought the divine to the 19th century”, as well as his “concern for the working class” and “for work”, the spirit of association, civilisation of underdeveloped peoples. “Don Bosco did not put aside anything which might be useful in educational discoveries but went one better. He did not have a problem with the method, because he had solutions stemming from principles. He introduced the religious dimension as a guide to natural affection, in the science of charity. This is why Don Bosco gives pedagogy a divine touch”.447 Don Bosco’s pedagogy is “intensely religious and therefore not gloomy”. “Everything happened in an atmosphere of freedom and cheerfulness”.448 “All this came together with involvement and clever initiatives in an atmosphere of peace, dignity and trust”.449 The general style characterising his various undertakings was the Preventive System. For Don Bosco the Preventive System was the absolute, well-defined rule compared with the repressive method, often linked inevitably with civil strife. “The best and most miraculous power required for control, according to Don Bosco’s recommendations, was moral power. Don Bosco knew and understood that unless we win over the pupils’ affection, we are building on sand, educating bodies and not spirits”.450
Don Bosco’s life may be divided into three periods: The period of preparation (1815-1844); the period where the fundamental features of his educational activity are outlined (1844-1869); the period when his institutions receive both organisational and theoretical substance (1870-1888). Here we single out the more important moments of his life’s work and educational activity. 1815 (August 16) Don Bosco is born in the Becchi in the Municipality of Castelnuovo. 1817 Death of his father. 1824 A priest, Fr Joseph Lacqua, introduces John Bosco to reading and writing. 1827 First Communion, around Easter time. 1828 (February) Farmhand at the Moglia farm (until late autumn 1829). 1829 Study of Italian and Latin resumed with Fr John Calosso (who died November 21, 1829). 1830 John Bosco attends Castelnuovo Public school Christmas 1830-summer 1831) 1831 From November onwards John Bosco attends the public school in Chieri to study grammar, the humanities and rhetoric. 1835 John Bosco enters the seminary in Chieri and begins his philosophy and theology courses. 1841 June 5, the Vigil of the feast of the Holy Trinity, Don Bosco is ordained priest. 1841 (November) Don Bosco is enrolled in the Convitto Ecclesiastico (Ecclesiastical College) in Turin for the practical study of moral theology and homiletics; he begins to gather young people and adults and teach them catechism. 1844 (October) Don Bosco is appointed chaplain to one of the works of Marchioness Giulia di Barolo. 1845 (May)-1846 (March) The Wandering Oratory begins at St Peter in Chains Church to the Dora Mills, to the Moretta house, to the Filippi meadows. 1846 (April 12) The Oratory finds its definitive location in the Pinardi Shed in the suburb of Valdocco. It is here that Don Bosco and his mother come to live. The evening schools begin during the winter of 1846-1847. 1847 The opening of the first home; the St Aloysius Oratory is opened in the area of Porta Nuova; the St Aloysius Sodality begins. 1848 (October 21) Beginning of the publication L’amico della Gioventù (The Friend of Youth), a religious, moral and political Newspaper (which would last only eight months and later merge into the Istruttore del Popolo (The People’s Instructor). 1849 Don Bosco takes on the management of the Guardian Angels Oratory from Fr Cocchi, in the area of Vanchiglia in Turin; he founds the workers society or the mutual aid society for which he would draw up a constitution in 1850 1852 (March 31) Archbishop Fransoni is exiled to Lyons (France). He appoints Don Bosco the director and spiritual head of the Turin Oratory of St Francis de Sales, with the oratories of St Aloysius and the Guardian Angel dependent on it. 1853 Don Bosco begins the publication of the Catholic readings and also opens a modest shoemaker’s workshop in the Oratory. 1854 The book-binding shop is opened. As an experiment, the seminal beginnings of the Salesian Society, Don Bosco proposes an associative, apostolic form of life to two clerics (Bl. Michael Rua is one and would become Don Bosco’s first successor), and two other young men, one of whom becomes the future Cardinal John Cagliero. Don Bosco has his first encounter with Minister Urban Rattazzi. Dominic Savio enrols as a pupil in the Valdocco Oratory (1842 - 1857). 1855 The third high school grade is introduced at the Oratory (up till now the students attended schools run by private individuals). 1856 The first carpentry shop is opened at the Oratory; the first two high school grades are introduced. The beginning of the Immaculate Conception Sodality. 1857 Beginning of the Blessed Sacrament Sodality; the creation of the Altar Boys Sodality; the St Vincent de Paul Conference for young people commences. 1858 Don Bosco’s first trip to Rome to present Pope Pius IX with the plan for his Religious Society dedicated to working for youth. The first outline of the Salesian Constitutions. 1859 The high school curriculum is completed (5 grades); beginning of the St Joseph’s sodality; the Salesian Society comes to the fore but as a private religious association in practice. 1860 The first lay helpers (Coadjutors) are admitted into the privately constituted Society. 1861 (December 31) Authorisation is given to open the printing shop. 1862 The blacksmith’s shop is introduced; first profession of religious vows (May 14). 1863 The first school outside Turin is inaugurated under the direction of Fr Michael Rua. On this occasion Don Bosco writes a letter to Fr Rua. It would become the original core of the future Confidential Memo to Rectors (the school would move to Borgo San Martino in 1870). The beginning of the construction of the Church of Mary Help of Christians in Turin. 1864 The Lanzo Torinese College (boarding school) becomes operative. The Decretum Laudis on behalf of the Salesian Society is issued. 1865 Don Bosco’s new project: Bibliotheca degli scittori latini (The Library of Christian Authors). It actually began in 1866 with the title: Selecta ex latinis scriptoribus in usum scholarum (Selections from Latin Authors for the Use of schools). 1868 Consecration of the Church of Mary Help of Christians. 1869 (Feb. 19) The Holy See definitively approves the Salesian Society; the school at Cherasco is opened; the first volume of the Biblioteca della gioventù italiana (Library for Italian youth) is published (It would come to an end in 1885, the last publication would be No. 204). 1870 The college at Alassio is founded. 1871 The college at Varazze and the technical school in Marassi are opened (The latter would transfer to Sampierdarena near Genoa the following year). 1872 The Valsalice College for young noblemen is accepted. The foundation takes place of the religious female branch of the Salesian Society with the title of Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians. 1874 Final, definitive approval of the Salesian Constitutions by the Holy See. 1875-1887 The Salesian effort spreads throughout Europe (France, Spain, England) and South America (Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, etc.) with undertakings related to emigrants, schools and other educational Institutions and missionary activities. 1876 Pope Pius IX approves the Pious Union of Salesian Cooperators. 1877 The first General Chapter of the Salesian Society of St Francis de Sales is held. Three others would follow in Don Bosco’s lifetime: 1880, 1883, and 1886. In 1877, the pages written by Don Bosco on The Preventive system are published as well as the Il Regolamento per le case (Rules for the Houses). In August, Il bibliofilo cattolico (The Catholic book lover. The Salesian Bulletin) begins. 1880 Don Bosco accepts responsibility for building the Basilica of the Sacred Heart in Rome. The Basilica would be consecrated May 14, 1887. 1881 (February) The Utrera College (Spain) is opened. 1883 Don Bosco’s triumphant trip to Paris. 1884 Next-to-last trip to Rome (the 19th). The so called Privileges are finally granted in June 1884. 1886 April 8-May 6: extraordinary welcoming reception given to Don Bosco in Spain, Don Bosco’s stay in Spain at Sarria and Barcelona. 1887 (May) Don Bosco’s last trip to Rome on the occasion of the consecration of the Basilica of the Sacred Heart. 1888 (Tuesday, January 31, at 4:45 a.m. Don Bosco dies.
To reconstruct Don Bosco’s educational praxis and theory it seems we should employ some basic methodological criteria which in turn should take the following into account: 1. The complexity of Don Bosco’s activity and his vision of the young; 2. The constant interaction between action, writings and life experiences, both personal and institutional; 3. The constantly changing historical context. All of these should be kept in mind as well as the complex reality of the historical context, oscillating between rigid patterns and efforts to adapt.
Don Bosco is not only an educator in the strict and formal sense of the term. His educative activity451, properly so called, is part of a wider gamut of interests related to youth and ordinary people at all levels. Practically speaking, the peculiarities of Don Bosco’s educational activity should be seen in the context of a threefold concern interconnected yet formally distinct:
This complex activity finds adequate expression in complementary statements which clearly evidence their double dimension: Action and Religious Consecration. For twenty years I have been carrying out my priestly ministry to prisons, hospitals, all along the streets and city squares in Turin; I gave shelter to abandoned boys, to direct them to good morals, work, according to their talents and abilities without asking for or actually receiving any sort of compensation for it. I actually used my own money to build a house and provide a livelihood for poor boys. I would do the same thing today.452 This is the objective of our Society: our personal sanctification, and, through the practice of charity, the salvation of souls. To achieve this, we have to be extremely careful, in assigning to leadership positions on behalf of others only those who are outstanding in virtue and in the knowledge of what they try to teach others. It is better to be without a teacher than to have one who is incapable of teaching.453 At least two considerations can be drawn from the above for any reconstruction of the Preventive System: First of all the presentation of the proper pedagogical element of the Preventive System does not cover its entire range. In fact, it also includes a clear pastoral and spiritual dimension both in reference to educators and those to be educated. Secondly, to adequately use Don Bosco’s writings which are the expression and dimension of its entire lived experience, we should interpret their explicitly pedagogical contents when necessary. These, in turn, should be connected with other appropriate elements: theological, juridical, hagiographical, spiritual, ascetic and organisational.454
There is a huge number of Don Bosco’s writings which owe their existence to his radical aim of championing the improvement of the young and the masses. They end up being incomprehensible or even misleading, even theoretically, if not connected with his personality and with the real life of the institutions he created and governed. This does not mean the Preventive System is to be precisely equated with Don Bosco himself. Undoubtedly, Don Bosco’s outstanding personality as a clever and holy educator gives the system a particular tone of its own, but the system takes on its own structure and validity. It even becomes a doctrine to be handed on, and it was actively handed on firstly to his own immediate co-workers and to the various groups working in the field of youth assistance. Don Bosco and his followers ended up clearly setting the Preventive System, with its structure and effectiveness, against another doctrine and educational praxis, the repressive system. It does not exclude, but implies rather that the best interpreter of Don Bosco for theorising and writing about the Preventive System is Don Bosco himself. It is he who creates and moulds his educational experience and enfleshes it in his own institutions together with all his co-workers and young people who are the first and most active beneficiaries of the system. Bartholomew Fascie wrote: “One who approaches Don Bosco’s education system with the idea of subjecting it to painstaking analysis, dissecting it, dividing it into many parts, rigid patterns, is following the wrong lead. Don Bosco’s method of education should be looked at as a living form in its entirety, by studying the principles which gave origin to its life, its bodies, its vitality, and the functions developed from them”.455
The attention given to the historical, contextual and vital nature of the Preventive System should help remove the possibility of its reconstruction being too rigid and uniform. In fact Don Bosco’s educational experience and the theoretical reflection accompanying it occurred at a considerably different time and in a different social, environmental and institutional context. The years prior to 1848 and the birth of Italian national unity (1860), as well as the Piedmontese period of expansion of Don Bosco’s undertakings (up to 1870), are not easily identifiable either in themselves or in the years and periods that immediately followed. The psychological climate, cultural impulses, social conditions and political and religious contexts appear to have been radically different. Besides, even within these periods there cannot be any comparison with the experiences Don Bosco had at the festive oratory, the homes for apprentices, for student-seminarians, in the boarding colleges for students and artisans, for boys of middle and upper classes (like those at Alassio, Turin-Valsalice and Este), in the Patronages of Southern France and in similar institutions in Argentina and Uruguay. It is quite natural to find the essential elements and basic inspirations everywhere but quite different accents and elements as well and at the same time And it is also natural that similar differences might be noticed in written documents which are different because of the reality they refer to, or because of the situations at the time they were written or because of the literary genre. We have already hinted at the hypothesis of a Preventive System carried out with a variety of preventive methods and firstly the reference to the different “open” institutions, an “open” institution like the oratory, and comprehensive schools like the colleges or boarding schools.456
Even though Don Bosco had published many things, in none of them had he provided a systematic explanation of his ideas on pedagogy or provided basic directions for his educational praxis. However, there was little he wrote which did not have some connection with the education of young people and the masses, whether he was writing history, apologetics, didactic material, catechetics, religious content, hagiography, biography or normative texts.457 For this reason, any faithful reconstruction of Don Bosco’s ideas on education should not leave out any of his writings, published or unpublished, even though a privileged place should be given to the more explicitly pedagogical writings. Added to these should also be the abundant endorsements by his co-workers and contemporaries: books, chronicles, memoirs, biographical profiles, the history of institutions, minutes of general and particular meetings or conferences, General Chapter and Superior Chapter meetings. The collected letters are particularly important.458 We shall limit ourselves to singling out writings and endorsements of an obvious pedagogical nature and intent, both theoretical and practical. “A cheerful and happy way of living as a Christian” is what Don Bosco wanted to teach young people with his Companion of Youth written in 1847.459 The first essays on the pedagogical thinking of the Oratory are: An introduction to the regulated plan of life; the Historical outline of the Oratory of St Francis de Sales 1852-54 and the Historical outlines of the Oratory of St Francis de Sales, 1862.. 460 Linked to the structure of the college-seminary are some well-known biographical outlines published during the decade 1859-1868: On the life of Dominic Savio (1854); 461 A biographical sketch of the young Michael Magone (1861) 462, The little shepherd of the Alps, namely the life of Besucco Francesco from Argentera (1864). 463 Similar to these are some stories with instructional and biographical background: The Power of a Good Education (1855),464 Valentine or the story of an obstructed vocation (1866);465 Severino or the adventures of a young man from the Alps (1868);466 Confidential Memo for Rectors is full of solid pedagogical meaning. These Reminders, as mentioned earlier, are a letter addressed to Fr Michael Rua who had just been appointed rector of the college at Mirabello Monferrato (Italy).467 The Memoirs of the Oratory of St Francis de Sales is an exceptional document of lived pedagogy in reference to the years 1815-1854 and in particular to the first initiatives vis-a-vis the festive oratory in Turin and the start of the home or Annex. These Memoirs edited by Don Bosco between 1873 and 1879,were published for the first time in 1846.468 The Preventive System in the education of youth is the best known work written by Don Bosco in 1877.469 A memo sent to the Italian minister for the interior, Francesco Crispi in February 1878, has the same title but different content.470. Don Bosco compiled various regulations for his educational institutions. Wide-ranging and important are: Rules of the Oratory of St Francis de Sales for day students (1877)471 and The Regulations for the Society of St Francis de Sales. In these latter regulations the introductory articles are the most important, pedagogically speaking.472 Even though relegated to later writings (1881-1882) Don Bosco’s two positions on his system of education, in two different conversations in 1854 and 1864 should be considered reliable: the first is the one Don Bosco took with Urban Rattazzi, a government minister of the Kingdom of Sardinia.473 The other was in conversation with an elementary school teacher, Francis Bodrato.474 We also have an exceptional letter on punishments very close to Don Bosco’s way of thinking and with interesting references to the Preventive System. It has definite connection with the experience at the very heart of Don Bosco’s undertakings, namely the Valdocco Oratory in Turin.475 There are also two significant letters dated May 10, 1884: the first, a short one, was sent to community of youngsters at Valdocco; the second contains material for the Salesians working at the Oratory. Both letters were inspired by Don Bosco and edited by Fr John Baptist Lemoyne.476 Ideally connected with The Confidential Reminders for Rectors are two letters written by Don Bosco in August 1885 to the Salesians in Argentina and Uruguay.477 Of particular interest for catechetical and religious formation of the young are his Church history (1845); Bible history (1847); Warnings for Catholics: Fundamental truths of the Catholic religion (1850 and 1853); A Practical way of knowing Bible history (1855). Other writings of a scholastic nature deserve our attention: The Metric System simply Explained (1849); The History of Italy Explained to the Young (1855). Among writings of a recreational nature we should include the following: A Theatrical Presentation of the Metric Decimal System in Dialogue (1849); A Debate Between a Lawyer and a Protestant Minister (1853); The House of Fortune: Drama (1865); The Delightful Story of an Old Soldier of Napoleon I (1862); Pleasant Stories about Pius IX (1871).
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