[dropcap]S[/dropcap]t. John Bosco, popularly and affectionately called Don Bosco, was not so much an armchair educational theorist but a practical man with a compassionate heart and a burning zeal to save the youngsters from the perils of life. He was convinced that understanding the youth is an ongoing process. Don Bosco asked the educators to treat the young as their teachers! According to him, to learn the needs, hopes, and insecurities of the young people should be paramount in the minds and hearts of the educators of the young. In this regard, establishing genuine, friendly relationships with the young people is so essential for a proper education.
Don Bosco knew that young people need authentic teachers: persons open to the fullness of truth in the various branches of knowledge, persons who listen to and experience in their own hearts that interdisciplinary dialogue which promotes wholeness and harmony; persons, who above all, are convinced of our human capacity to advance along the path of truth. In his view, education cannot any more ignore the importance and relevance of the development of aesthetic sense among children as aesthetic appreciation leads the mind to newer explorations for finding “books in brooks” and “sermons in stones” for empowerment and enlightenment.Don Bosco’s vision of education calls for an integral understanding of education that educates the human search for meaning. It accompanies the search towards the encounter between the creature and the Creator. His well-known words on the subject are simple, yet profound: “Remember that education is a matter of the heart, of which God is the sole master, and we will be unable to achieve anything unless God teaches us, and puts the key in our hands.” In Don Bosco’s vision, education concerns the totality of the person, each one’s interior unity and ultimate destiny.
In his letter to his followers from Rome on 10th May 1884, Don Bosco wrote that love alone is not enough. He insists that “we must stay with the young, take part in their games.” He asks for something more: “Love what the young love.” He goes on to exhort: “The educator must love what the young love, and the young will come to love what the educators love.” There is no surprise more magical than the surprise of being loved. Don Bosco goes on to say: “If the young know that they are really loved because the educators take part in the things that are pleasing to them, they learn to love the things they naturally don’t like, such as discipline, study, etc., and these things they learn to do with enthusiasm and love.”
Don Bosco wanted his educators to be reasonable with the young. Reason stands for a wise and progressive enlightenment of the minds of the young, opening them to the world, to culture, to the realities of life and the appeal of values. In dealing with the young, reason also signifies reasonableness, good sense, prudence, simplicity and avoidance of anything artificial. The rules of good behaviour to be inculcated must be reasonable and essential; they must be clearly explained, and their necessity and value must be patiently brought home to the young. Reason in this context also means persuasiveness and dialogue, and formation of the conscience to personal responsibility and freedom.
There are more things to admire in people than to despise. Don Bosco never gave up on anyone because they were wicked or immoral. He was convinced that even the dirty water can quench the fire, and water can always be purified. The educator must possess the capacity for true love, openness to others, ability for mutual acceptance and of unconditioned and positive appraisal of persons and situations. Kindness, sincerity of mind, constant respect for justice, and pleasantness in dealing with others are also basic requirements for a true educator.
Don Bosco was a pioneer to bring to the fore the perpetual importance of life-long education. In the past, the future used to be something with known paradigms and we were preparing students for only a few known professions. Don Bosco believed that this is no longer true as the future has not only become unknown but also unpredictable.
Don Bosco was no slave of his times or traditions. He had a passion to remain relevant to the times. He had seen the undue emphasis on the scholastic aspects of growth at the cost of other more important ‘life-relevant’ co-scholastic facets of personality. He knew that this inadvertent and sometimes ever deliberate neglect of the ‘Man-making function of education’ has already cost the society dearly. He did not want to continue to step on this slide of disaster. In a world taken over by materialism and selfishness where sacrifice for others is considered as foolishness, patience as inertness, humility as cowardice, obedience as slavery, honesty as lack of foresight and respect for law as timidity, Don Bosco helped in inculcating in the children values that really mattered in life.
Don Bosco was such an ardent lover of youth that we hardly come across him all alone: he is always in the midst of youth or surrounded by a group of children. He himself sums up his guiding principle: “That you are young is enough to make me love you very much.” As the year 2015 commemorates the bicentenary of the birth of this great saint and educator, it is most fitting that we too learn to love the young, appreciate their great potentiality and innate goodness, and help them to realize their dreams and aspirations.
Fr. T.C. Joseph Sdb
Bosco B.Ed. College
