2. INTRODUCTION
Education
Education is a word derived from
“educare” meaning “to bring out”,’ to train
“, and ‘to mould into desirable form”.
At a distance of a century and a half, Don
Bosco’s system of education has lost none
of its charm.
3. CONCEPT OF EDUCATION
Concept of education in the Indian
culture.
For them knowledge was just a means of
attaining liberation or mukti.
5. Gurukula System
Education in India was subject –oriented.
The primary aim of the gurukula was not
the imparting of mere academic
knowledge, but the formation
of the pupil’s character and
the acquisition of virtues.
It is an excellent example of the family system
we find in Don Bosco where his own mother and
others involved in his youth work.
6. Method of Learning
The Upanishads speak of three steps in
instruction:
1. Sravana,
2. Manana
and
3. Nididhyasana.
7. The teacher or guru is indispensable for
the acquisition of knowledge
(katopanishad: 2:8).
The term ‘Guru’ itself signifies that the
teacher possesses uncommon authority.
The Guru: An Indispensable Person
8. Guruship implied a spiritual relation
between the teacher and the taught.
Mutual protection was another
feature of the gurukula system of
education
Guru-sishya Relationship
9. In the first book of the Bible, we read that God
created man in his own image and gave him
authority to rule the entire universe.
“God gave Solomon very great wisdom,
discernment and breadth of understanding”
( I Kings: 4:29).
The Christian Concept on Education
10. God gave them the rule of life i.e. The Ten
Commandments.
God expected disciplined life from the
people of Israel for in his sight discipline
and faithfulness are the fountain head of all
wisdom and knowledge (Sir 1:26)
Rule of Life
11. Jesus is the manifestation of divine knowledge
and the real source of wisdom. The church is the
mystical body of Christ and continues the
mission of Christ.
The encyclical Rerum Novarum of Leo XIII ,
Quadragesimo Anno of Pius XI, Pacem in Terris
and Mater et Magistra of John XXIII definitely
made it clear to the whole world that the church, as
a loving mother.
Church Documents on Education
12. GE is one of the shortest documents of
Vatican II.
Vatican II interested itself in the
problems of education and of schools
GRAVISSIMUM EDUCATIONIS…
13. The church proclaimed that Don Bosco is
one of the greatest educators.
In a sense, he was a pragmatist; using his
talents to yield consistent results,
which were concerned primarily with
preparations for living and for life.
Don Bosco - The Educator
14. The London Times, “the Saint Vincent de Paul of the
twentieth century.”
Joseph Zoppi, the Swiss poet, wrote, “if ever there existed a
method of education adapted to inspire confidence and
love, it is the method of Don Bosco”.
Franklin D. Roosevelt said of him: “a real educator …master in
the direction of vocations, and a pioneer of professional and
agricultural schools”.
15. The threefold salesian
educational criteria of Don
Bosco’s preventive system:
1. Reason,
2. Religion, and
3. Kindness.
Don Bosco’s Preventive System in
Education
16. Consists in making the law known
to the subjects, and afterwards
watching to discover the
transgressors of these laws, and
inflicting, when necessary, the
punishment deserved.
The Repressive System
17. Consists in making the laws and regulations
of an institute known, and then watching
carefully so that the pupils may at all
times be under the vigilant eye of the
rector or the assistants.
In other words, this system places the pupils
in the impossibility of committing faults.
The Preventive System
18. 1. It is always accompanied by a friendly
preventive warning.
2. The primary reason for this system is the
thoughtlessness of the young.
3. By the preventive system pupils acquire a
better understanding.
4. Educator speaks to them in the language of
the heart.
This System is Preferred for the
Following Reasons:
19. A Theological Outlook
on the Educational Pedagogy of
Don Bosco.
“People do not care
what you know,
until they know that you care.”
20. As far as Christians are concerned, the issue of
education must be addressed from the divine
revelation of the Word of God.
“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God,
and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for
correction, for instruction in righteousness,
that the man of God may be complete,
thoroughly equipped for every good work,”
(2 Timothy 3:16-17).
1. Jesus - Great Teacher of Life.
21. Many Christians have a split faith! Because they
distinguish between character, ethics, doctrine and
life, they lack a comprehensive unity in their lives—
at least as far as education is concerned.
Paul tells Timothy, a colleague and successor he had
trained himself, “Take heed to yourself and to the
doctrine,” (1 Tim 4:16-12).
The Book of Proverbs is the Bible’s greatest handbook
for education.
22. The word “disciple”, was derived from the
superlative form of the Latin word “junior”
(an apprentice, a pupil or a subordinate) and
means “a pupil”.
The more one knows, the more one realizes how
little one knows and how much more there is
to learn, “... The fear of the Lord is the
beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the
Holy one understands” (Proverbs 9:8-10).
23. The Twelve had already heard Jesus preach before their
conversion and first became general followers of Jesus.
“And when He had called His twelve disciples to Him, He gave
them power over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to
heal all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease” (Matt 10:1)
In Luke 6:12, Jesus prays all night, then calls His disciples and
chooses twelve, “whom He also named apostles”
In (Luke 6:13) Jesus therefore chose the Twelve out of a larger
group of disciples, but this last text describes the process
and the goal of His selection.
2. The Training of the Twelve Apostles
24. The Don Bosco’s educative system sets young
people on the road to a simple, serene and happy
form of holiness, bringing together in a single
vital experience the playground, serious study,
and a constant sense of duty.
Education of the youth requires us to go further
towards the meeting and acceptance of a
revealed event: human life attains its fullness
only in Jesus Christ.
Reflections of Method of Jesus in the
Salesian Pedagogy
25. We are given guidance in this direction by our
constitutions:” we educate and evangelize
according to a plan for the total well being of man
directed to Christ, the perfect man. Faithful to the
intentions of founder, our purpose is to form
upright citizens and good Christians.
We take up seriously therefore four important aspects
of the Christian maturing process which we shall
call “dimensions”
26. 1. Human growth towards a life to be lived
as a “religious experience.
2. His meeting with Jesus Christ, the perfect
man, which will lead to the discovery in
him of the meaning of individual and
social human existence the “savior of
mankind”.
27. 3. Progressive insertion in the community of believers
accepted as the “sign and instrument” of humanity’s
salvation.
4. The knowledge of Christ in the Gospel, which is
indispensable for an adequate understanding of
Christian life.
Don Bosco’s constant concern was to educate to the
faith, walking “side by side with the young so as to lead
them to the risen lord”.
28. Meeting of Christ in the Sacraments
The meeting and relationship with the risen
Christ are lived in a special way in the
celebration of the sacraments.
Don Bosco’s pedagogy of holiness
emphasis is placed primarily on the
educative influence of reconciliation and
the Eucharist.
29. The sacrament of Reconciliation, which
celebrates the love of god, which is greater than
sin, was presented to the young by Don Bosco as
one of the main pillars of the educative edifice.
Eucharist is called the second pillar of the
educational edifice of the Salesian system.
“Education to true love, passes necessarily
through the Eucharist.”
30. Mary
Mary, invoked and honored under
the title of “Helper” is for them a
“sign of certain hope and comfort.
31. It was the supernatural goal of life. If
education has to be success, the educators
must be of spiritual caliber.
A life of intense prayer and the
encounter with Christ in the
sacraments will enable us to be
educators like Don Bosco for our times
32. This will lay open the way to further
options and decisions provided it is done
with great love and a bit of what Don
Bosco used to call, common sense, and
which today, perhaps, one may call a
critical sense, a sense of one’s own limits
and the sense of history.
33. 1. How can we promote justice and love in the existing
Indian educational system?
2. How could we respond to the government policies on
school and the higher education?
3. What is our response to growing tension along
ideological, religious and ethnic lines? Especially when we
become victims of violence ourselves?
4. How do our schools respond to the needs and aspirations
of the people, specially the poor in India today? How can
we make our students defender of human rights?
.
34. THE SALESIAN EDUCATIONAL
INSTITUTION IS A CENTRE WHERE
“QUALITY EDUCATION” IS
OFFERED TO ALL THE YOUNG;
ESPECIALLY TO THE POOR AND
ABANDONED, BY MEANS OF
“QUALITY PRESENCE”.
