SCHOOL PHILOSOPHY
St. John Bosco – Founder of the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians
St. Mary Domenica Mazarello – Co – Foundress of the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians
Preventive System of Education
In the Salesian Schools of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, the FMA (Salesian Sisters), teachers and staff, the parents and the students form the Educating Community whose primary role is indispensable in forming the young to become builders of the Christian Community, women and men of Christian conscience, commitment and competency.
The faculty and the staff of the school are called the lay collaborators. The FMA Constitutions emphasizes their importance in the Salesian word. “In all our educational work, let us be aware of the importance of the choice of our lay collaborators. Let us offer them the possibility of a gradual preparation enabling them to share with us in the responsibility of organizing and carrying out our educative work using the Preventive System.” (FMA Constitutions)
“The Preventive System is the hallmark of our vocation in the Church and of our specific spirituality and method of apostolic action. The spirit has been passed unto us and guides our line of action, permeates our relationship with others and characterizes our lifestyle.” (Art. 7, FMA Constitutions)
The Goal
In education, prevention means, ‘taking away those negative experiences which could seriously harm the youth's growth and to equip the young person with the means to independently encounter what life offers;' ‘prevention in a sense of creating an ambient in which the young person grows in making choices and imbibing values spontaneously because of the models that he/she sees in his/her educators and companions, who are like forerunners.
For Don Bosco, education is a sacrifice. The educators has to be ready to lay down his life for the young person so that his uniqueness and innate positive goodness would shine forth for the building of God's kingdom. He formulated his programme for boys in simple but meaningful statements. He spoke of forming “good Christians and upright citizens”; he set his sights on the “health, wisdom and holiness” of his boys, and proposed a lifestyle comprising “cheerfulness, study and piety.” What Don Bosco did for his boys, he desire to do for the girls, through Maria Domenica Mazzarello.
Don Bosco recognized the great educational abilities of Mary Domenica, welcoming in her the woman who, guided by the Spirit, can realized for young women what the Salesian were already accomplishing for young men.
Mary Domenica became the person, together with Don Bosco, through whom the Spirit gave birth to the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, which is the feminine expression of the spirituality and mission of the Salesian Congregation.
The Method
In Don Bosco's own words, “this system is based entirely on Reason, Religion and Loving – Kindness”.
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. Reason also implies a clear enlightenment of the mind on the truths concerning God and moral behavior by a sound and systematic teaching of moral conscience.
In dealing with the young, reason also signifies reasonableness, good sense, simplicity, and avoidance of anything artificial. The rules of good behavior to be inculcated must be reasonable and essential; they must be clearly explained, and their necessity and value must be patiently 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.
Religion provides the motivation, the ultimate meaning, significance and orientation of a project of life governed by Reason. For Don Bosco, the will – educated mature person is one who places at the apex of all his knowledge, the knowledge of God; at the summit of his life – project, his eternal happiness with God; and at the center of his personal conscience, submission to the will of God.
Loving Kindness or amorevolezza is rooted in the charity of the Good Shepherd. It is the key that gives access to the heart of every young person. There are very few people who rebel in the face of genuine goodness. One gets discipline with a blend of kindness and firmness, and by never asking what is above the strength of the child. If the educators acts differently she/he frustrates the child instead of helping her/him find the freedom of the children of God. Loving - kindness in order to have a true educational value must be based on a healthy equilibrium, which, while surrounding the child with a genuine and heart – felt love, avoids every form of false affection, and renders the teacher – pupil relationship a shared search for true values. Don Bosco's philosophy of education is summarized in this principle, which explains, justifies and actuates it: “Education is matter of the heart.”
Salesian Assistance:
Peculiarity of the Salesian Educative Method
In the fulfillment of the school's vision and mission, the members of the Educating Community must be willing to imbibe the Salesian Educative Pedagogy. Salesian Education demands from the teacher certain demands not found in other educational institutions such as Salesian Assistance. Salesian Assistance requires a teacher to devote time outside class hours to stay with the young during their free time as a friendly educative presence. It is derived from the Italian word Assistenza; ‘Assistance' is a key word in Don Bosco's creative work. It is derived from the Latin word Ad – sister, literally ‘ to stand beside , to be with'; it is cognate with the Greek word Parakletos, denoting the person called to the side of one in need of assistance. This involves embracing the Salesian Paradigm of ‘Presence', which is one of the central features of Salesian Education.
The spirit that inspired this continual ‘assistance and vigilance' in Don Bosco was ‘ love, esteem and trust.' It has nothing to do with acting like a policeman, but rather it is an effective educative presence, which does not coerce. It is dedication, help, a sharing of life, which stimulates and leads to the maturation of the young people.
Don Bosco's conception of the educator – student rapport demands such an atmosphere of reciprocal trust, of complete confidence, of spontaneous dialogue, of genuine sharing in the life of the young people, and constant and concrete collaboration of common interests, that it constitutes a very delicate and vulnerable complex of interventions on the part of the educator. Indeed the mission can be accomplished successfully only by the total dedication to one's students that Don Bosco demanded of his educators.
Such demand on the Salesian teachers requires that they be young, creative, and energetic to stand and enjoy the rigors of delivering the demands of the academic load and of Salesian Assistance. As lay collaborators they are expected to be committed and to gradually assume the Salesian educational project as their own, in serving the young with their own competence.
The Key to Educational Activity: Dialogue
According to Leon Barbey, “Education is an encounter.” Education demands a personal self – giving of the educator to the student. Without this encounter there can be no education. Encounter forms the catalyst of every educative action because it provides the right springboard: understanding.
It is therefore dialogue that establishes contact. Dialogue holds the key to the hearts of the young, to gain admission to hearts that always close itself to harshness. Dialogue if really authentic penetrates the soul, investigates its secrets, wins it over and leads it to truth.
Education for Don Bosco is a dialogue, not a monologue. It is not generic interpersonal rapport but a rapport of persons in active and factual collaboration. It is a conversation of more than one voice, often just tow (as in the intimacy of the Confessional and of spiritual direction, of the private conversation or the little personal word, the parolina all'orcchio) and often of several voices. In this latter form the voices of companions or of the whole school staff can play a part. Because of this Don Bosco's pedagogy is the ‘pedagogy of the heart' because only in genuine love fed by sentiments illumined and purified by reason and religion, is there true communication. If affection and dialogue is missing, so is the Preventive System. As a logical implication, Don Bosco's system rejects authoritarianism and legalism. It just cannot comtemplate the educator - student rapport in terms of polemics and rights.
The Atmosphere of Dialogue – The Family spirit: Salesian Organizational Climate
“Loving kindness demands family spirit, joy, spontaneity and cheerfulness. There can be no concrete loving – kindness if a family environment and atmosphere is not created. There must be cordial and affectionate interpersonal trust and confidence. The dominant note in this has to be joy which is the enemy of every form of ‘being just colleagues' of ‘theorizing from an armchair' or of acting officially.
A certain Father Orioli, after visiting Valdocco, published a pamphlet entitled: The House of Don Bosco in Turin and writes in it: “ In this house the only desire is to find means of doing good. There is a surprising expression of kindness and joy on the face of everyone there. Surprise reaches its maximum when one sees the Superiors mixing with the students and artisans and acting more like friends that Superiors. There is none of that oppressive authoritarianism so characteristic of other boarding schools.”
This was because Don Bosco really believed that the educational environment should reflect as much as possible its archetype, the natural environment of the family with its atmosphere of spontaneous relationships, its warm, trusting, and confidence – filled affection, its free relaxing atmosphere.
Without friendliness it is not possible to show affection, and unless affection is shown there will be no confidence. The person who wants to be love must show that he knows how to love. The teacher who is seen only on his desk is nothing more than a teacher, but if he joins the boys at recreations, he is seen as a brother … anyone who is loved, loves. The one who loves can obtain all that he desires especially from young people.
The Preventive System, experienced in a family atmosphere of deep and open relationship, presents values and creates formative experiences, which lead to commitment and social responsibility.
This Preventive System is being carried out today in its Vision – Mission as a Congregation and in the Mission and Objectives of Mary Help of Christians School, Inc. Canlubang, Laguna.
The Way of Life : Salesian Youth Spirituality
Spirituality is about living each day immersed in the mystery of God. The Spirit of Jesus is at work within the very fiber of our humaneness, our actions, our words and our life experiences. Truly spiritual women and men those who choose to allow the mysterious and all pervading presence of a living choices and their optimism. This is the gift Don Bosco left us, a spirituality of life and daily living. The adjective “Salesian” distinguishes the project from other proposals offered within the church. The adjective “youth” underlines the fact that this proposal refers to young people and has the characteristics of youthfulness even when adults live it out, as in the case for the Salesian Sisters. The noun “spirituality” attempts to reclaim a serious and challenging commitment based on the tradition of discipleship. Finally we are saying that we want the “Salesian” that gospel radicality that has been the mark of so many Christians before.
The Salesian Youth Spirituality has created an almost indefinable “movement of life” which goes by the name of the Salesian Youth Movement. It is a life style shared by groups and organizations in the different settings (oratory, school, youth center, parish or local community).
“Salesian Youth Spirituality” is founded on the Incarnation and is a spirituality, which loves life. It recognizes in humanity and in life the place where God is continually present and close to each of us, like the good and welcoming Father who saves and fills life. Reflecting in this way on our lives and the meaning of our lives impels us to be true to life and to live it to the full.
“Salesian Youth Spirituality” is a “Spirituality of daily living”. “In order to understand and love life as a new reality in which God works as a loving Father, we need to assume the ordinariness of daily living, accepting life's challenges, life's questions and the tensions that growing brings. We need to seek to integrate life's fragments into the kind of wholeness, which is the Spirit's gift in Baptism. We need to work towards overcoming the ambiguity present in day to day experience and make love the basis of all the choices we make.” (CG 23)
The Word of God is a recognized and special means through which we reach into the mystery, while embracing all the moments of our existence. God is Father who wants to communicate with his children. God speaks to us through the Scripture. Scripture makes sense of all the other words of God wove into the fabric of daily living. This way of reading into, meditating on and praying with is basic to “Salesian Youth Spirtuality.”
Our Salesian tradition reserves a special function for the sacrament. For Don Bosco the sacraments were the strong points (the pillar's he called them) of Christian education. The Eucharist and Reconciliation in particular are the two great pillars on which Salesian Spirituality is built. The Eucharist is at the heart of the community, links it in love and sends it out to follow Christ's way. It is according to the 23 rd General Chapter of The SDB “a meaningful; moment of the Preventive System. Young people take fro the Eucharist a model of how they can organize their lives in the light of the mystery of Christ who gives himself in love. In the Eucharist they learn to put others first as the spirit of communion demands. In it they are enabled to commit themselves to apostolic activity in keeping with their age and Christian development.” The FMA Constitutions are more explicit still when they state “and nourishing ourselves at the table of his Word and his Body, we become like him ‘bread' for our sisters and brothers.” (FMA Constitutions 40)
Reconciliation saves us in our poverty and restores us in a new way in the spirit. “Salesian Youth Spirituality” emphasizes this sacrament and points out the need to give it its proper place n the life of the Christian. “Young people, sustained by a love which understands and forgives find the strength to recognize their selfishness and sin, their fragility and their need for support and direction. They learn to resist the temptation to become self-sufficient. They offer pardon to others as an exchange of what they have received from Reconciliation. They are educated to respect others and enabled to form a clear and coherent conscience.” These are seen as the educational fruits of the sacrament.
“Salesian Youth Spirituality” has re – discovered and has re – enkindled the great love for Mary that the Salesian family inherited from Don Bosco and Mother Mazzarello.
Mary has a very precise name in the “Salesian Youth Spirituality”. She is called “our help”. We run to her when we are in difficulty. Above all we feel she is close to us when we are less than sure about the meaning of our existence.
We live in a time of uncertainty and change, of trepidation and enthusiasm for novelty. Mary, our Help, points out the way ahead and inspire us with the level of meaning in life and hope. Mary is this help because she shows us the face of a mature and committed Christian; she is the most beautiful portrait we have of a Christian. (Excerpt from the Salesian Youth Spirituality handbook.)