The Programme—also called Regulations—of the school in Mornese was printed by Don Bosco at the Oratory Press like all the other Regulations for Salesian houses. The text copies many of the items in use at colleges he founded.
Giovanni Bosco – Summary of goodnights to the boys at Valdocco (1864-1877)
Amongst the more original practices put in place as part of the educational praxis at Valdocco, and maintained in the Salesian tradition that then followed from it, we would have to highlight the “Goodnights”: brief “talks” or “short speeches” after night prayers. Don Bosco addressed the pupils in the presence of their educators (superiors of the house, teachers assistants), in a familiar way using simple and attractive language.
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Giovanni Bosco – Pedagogical and didactic principles and disciplinary matters (1846-1879
The ten brief documents that follow—some perhaps less known than the previous ones in Salesian history—are also interesting from the point of view of the maturing and practice of Don Bosco’s educational system. We have a necessarily limited selection here of personal letters to people responsible for public education, or to young people and teachers, and circulars on pedagogical and didactic issues.
Giovanni Bosco – Reminders to practise the Preventive System (1884-1885)
In his 1877 booklet on pedagogy, Don Bosco highlights the advantages of the Preventive System and other reasons for which it should be preferred. At the same time he recognises that the “practical application” of the educational approach he is proposing implies “certain difficulties” for educators.
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Giovanni Bosco – Prevention and education (1877-1878): The Preventive System in the Education of the Young
The Preventive System in the education of the young (1877) is one of the most important and widespread documents by the founder of the Salesians and the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians. It is the first more or less complete account—despite its small size—that Don Bosco had put together on his educational approach. It is with this “small treatise” that his reputation as educator and pedagogue became so intimately linked.
Giovanni Bosco – Guidelines for running salesian houses (1863-1887)
The origin of this authoritative document, the Confidential Reminders, is a letter written to Fr Michael Rua whom Don Bosco called on to take up the running of the first Salesian house outside Turin in autumn 1863: the college or junior seminary of St Charles in Mirabello Monferrato. In a letter sent to the young Rector/Director, Don Bosco wanted to pass on pedagogical and spiritual guidelines which had already been in practice at Valdocco. These were to also characterise the apostolic and educational work in the new foundation.
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Giovanni Bosco – Don Bosco’s educational method in confidential discussions with a politician (1854) and an elementary school teacher (1864)
“Even though these were written down later (1881-1882), two presentations which Don Bosco made regarding his educational system are trustworthy. They were conversations that took place in 1854 and 1864. The first was with a Minister of the Kingdom of Sardinia, Urban Rattazzi; the other with an elementary teacher, Francis Bodrato.”
Giorgio Chiosso – Problemi aperti e prospettive del Congresso Internazionale di Storia Salesiana (2014)
Un passaggio decisivo della ricostruzione storica degli anni a venire potrebbe impegnarsi a rispondere a domande del tipo: come il sistema preventivo ha risposto, d’un lato, ai cambiamenti sopra delineati e, per un altro verso, come si è inculturato nelle realtà non occidentali? Come è stata interpretata la pedagogia boschiana dopo il Concilio, e quali frutti non solo pratici ma anche teorici ha portato? Ovvero come sono stati reinterpretati i princìpi fondanti del sistema? Continue reading “Giorgio Chiosso – Problemi aperti e prospettive del Congresso Internazionale di Storia Salesiana (2014)”
Pietro Braido – Contemporaneità di Don Bosco nella pedagogia di ieri e di oggi
Per contribuire fin dall’inizio alla chiarezza del dialogo, si crede opportuno riassumere le conclusioni a cui si vuole arrivare, nello svolgimento del tema: 1. Don Bosco non è l’unico educatore o pedagogista del suo tempo, nè l’unico « grande » anche solo nel campo cattolico. 2. Don Bosco non è l’unico prete che nel suo tempo si sia interessato di ragazzi, di gioventù povera e abbandonata o no. 3. Tra essi Don Bosco è, indubbiamente, un «Grande»: soprattutto per avere approfondito intuitivamente e praticamente comuni esperienze educative, attuandole in forme ardite e organiche, e con vastità di visuale. Continue reading “Pietro Braido – Contemporaneità di Don Bosco nella pedagogia di ieri e di oggi”
Jose Kuttianimattathil – The preventive system and child rights more than a tool for working with children with behavioral difficulties
The Salesians, who have been applying the Preventive System since the time of their Don Bosco, have understood it mostly as a method of education. However, when we re-read the Preventive System from the perspective of rights, we realize that it is a Child Rights friendly system. We see ingrained in it many of the Child Rights.
Michal Vojtáš – Don Bosco: a living harmony of leadership and management qualities
This study of Don Bosco in a perspective of organizational virtues is intended to be in a circular hermeneutic relation with the present period of transformation in which the Salesians of Don Bosco find themselves.