austraLasia #3146
Don
Bosco, Educator and associated matters
ROME: 20 October 2012--
Amongst the
works listed as essential for anyone wanting to come to grips
with the
preventive system and Don Bosco's overall educational
approach, Peter
Braido's Don Bosco educatore, looms large.
It has not been translated into English, and at nearly 500
pages of
critical apparatus, dealing with texts for the most part
written in Don
Bosco's 'ottocento' Italian, and in places where the size of a
single
footnote is more than the other content on the page, it may
yet take
some time before it is!
But
at
least Braido's introduction to this book (which he edited,
so there
are other well-known contributors such as Ferreira da Silva,
Prellezzo,
Motto involved) is now in English, and it makes an
interesting
read. It also contains a simple but useful list of
biographical dates
which quickly display Don Bosco's prodigious effort and output
as an
educator.
Braido's introduction is especially valuable in itself, as it
manages
to explain fairly briefly how 'preventive' is not a univocal
term once
we start looking at Don Bosco's practice, how the constant
relationship
between texts and works is essential if we are to understand
both, and
what are the key criteria for reading these texts.
The untranslated bulk of this book contains fragments and
documents
from Don Bosco's early years at the Oratory (1845.1854),
documents of a
narrative nature where he describes or 'tells about' his
pedagogy
(1854-1862), his normative and policy-oriented documentation
(1863-1878). There is a final section containing material
written (or
possibly written!) by Don Bosco in the last five years of his
life -
this includes his Spiritual Testament, the two letters from
Rome. three
letters to Salesians in Argentina, about which Braido says:
"these
represent the best in terms of expressing his 'system', not
only
pedagogically and socially, but also in the general style of
life and
relationships, principle of a true spirituality of religious,
personal
and community life".
In some ways, if anyone does have the courage to tackle this
very
demanding work of translation, it might be better to start
from the
back of the book! It would provide a hundred or so pages of
very
illuminating reading!
--------
MYM
One senses the increased pace, even around the Region, of
interest in
Don Bosco's pedagogy. We know that Francis Gustilo has
been
moving through parts of south-east Asia recently. News
from MYM
indicates that he has presented his material on Don Bosco's
Preventive
System there too, as he did earlier in Thailand and Cambodia.
BERKELEY
But keep an eye on another very valuable resource coming out
of
Berkeley and now available online. salesianstudies.org.
Amongst
other things you will find the Ongoing Formation Bulletins or
Don Bosco
Study Guides, as they are now called. The October 2012 one
contains a
challenging relfection by Jack Finnegan from IRL.
