STRENNA 2008

by Pascual Chávez Villanueva

EDUCATING WITH THE HEART OF DB

EDUCATION AND

CULTURE

“The primary and essential task of culture in general and also of all cultures is education. This consists in fact in enabling man to become more man, to “be” more than just to “have” more and consequently, through everything he “has,” everything he possesses, to “be” man more fully.”¹

_Education is a specific process of becoming human; it seeks to build up a man freeing him from the conditioning that could prevent him living his vocation to the full, and enabling him to develop all his creative capacities. Man’s development necessarily evolves through culture, understood as a way of relating to the world around him, to others, to himself, to God; but also as a way of coming into contact with a patrimony of knowledge, benefits and values, and as a personal process of assimilation, re-elaboration and enrichment. Therefore culture is not a patrimony accepted by everyone: we are dealing with a society that is more and more complex, post-ideological and multicultural, with all the aspects of ambiguity that this last term evokes Then it is also necessary to take into account the aspect of globalisation that crushes personal identity and creativity. So the next challenge to education in the future will be precisely that of a world view and a situation of interculturation, in which recognising what the differences are and seeing beyond the stereotypes will be essential and the valuable product of education. Education is capable of placing the situations and the aspirations of young people in the wider context of the experience of mankind as expressed in the cultural heritage and in the current changing view of the world.

■ Salesian education is based on a scale of values which derives from a particular understanding of man: the development of a mature conscience through seeking after the truth and holding on to it; the development of a responsible and creative freedom through the understanding of what is good and in choosing it; the ability to relate to others and a sense of solidarity based on a recognition of the dignity of the individual; preparation for the assumption of responsibilities based on a sense of justice and peace. Salesian houses are places of education and culture, in which young people are offered the knowledge that makes them aware of the problems of the world, sensitive to values and constructively critical; in which young people acquire attitudes that allow them to behave as free individuals with the capacity to be competent and effective in their activities. The situation of unbelief in which most young Europeans are growing up is well-known. This has an extraordinary impact on culture. Just to look at the world of literature and of the cinema. It is very difficult to find among those that are considered successful any production in which the main characters draw inspiration for their lives or for a way of life of dignity from Christianity. Religious experience is presented in a very negative light as something infantile or guilt-ridden. Nevertheless, for us Christ is the best news we can give to the world; in Him man finds his highest dignity, in so far as he is recognised as a son of God, and the boundaries of his life reach out to eternity. Therefore the final purpose of education is evangelisation as the synthesis of faith and culture, faith and life. Salesian educational establishments seek to pursue the integration of knowledge, education and the Gospel. Reference to Christ is the criterion to be used in discerning those values that build a man up and those counter values that degrade him. In fact, it is above all the irrelevance of the faith in culture and in life that is making the young indifferent to or oblivious to the world of religion, making the question of God insignificant, emptying religious language of its meaning and tending to undermine every effort at evangelisation.

■ For many centuries the Christian faith has inspired thinkers in Europe in their reflections, authors in their writings, artists in their creations, musicians in their compositions. Nowadays with great temerity (or cynicism?) there are those who try to deny the Christian roots of European culture. For too long an effective witnessing presence of Catholics has been lacking in the specific areas of culture. There is a lack of politicians, writers, teachers. doctors, poets, lawyers, journalists outstanding as Catholics. Since unbelief has a strong cultural impact in the West it is important that Catholics make culture their field of activity. Militant Catholics are needed in the world of the arts, of thinking, of the media, capable of giving fresh prestige to the Christian event. “The Church calls upon the lay faithful to be present, as signs of courage and intellectual creativity, in the privileged places of culture, that is, the world of education-school and university-in places of scientific and technological research, the areas of artistic creativity and work in the humanities.”² The educator according to the heart of Don Bosco knows that the educative process is meant for the total development of the individual. In his teaching he throws light on human knowledge with the data of the faith, without detracting from the aim that is proper to it; in the educational process he seeks to develop the individual’s culture as the capacity to be in communion with others and listen to them, as a duty to be at their service, and as a sense of responsibility towards others, and not as a means of self assertion and self profit. The Salesian educator helps in the discovery of the profound coherence between the faith and the values that culture pursues. ■