“Be with the boys, prevent sin with reason, religion and lovingkindness. Become saints, educators of saints. Let our boys realize that they are loved,” so said Don Bosco to his first collaborators, who over time became the great Salesian Family which aims at the salvation of youth, combating all poverty and making its own the motto “Give me souls, and keep everything else.” And from this focus on youth was born The Preventive System which refers above all to the living experience of Don Bosco and the collaborators, Salesians and lay people, who grew up with him and alongside him. The spread and practice of the Preventive System, so dear to us at MetaCometa as well., is linked to certain values that were fundamental for Don Bosco to be able to carry out his mission:
Attention to the needs of young people. “Love the things that young people love,” Don Bosco repeated to his collaborators, “Always and in every case we help young people open themselves to the truth and build a responsible freedom. That is why we strive to arouse in them the conviction and taste for authentic values that orient them to dialogue and service.”
Optimism. An optimism that takes into account the positive present in each young person and urges the educator to create a channel of communication, to cultivate a spirit of mutual trust for the growth of a harmonious personality while knowing that there are polluting elements but not such as to take away all educational possibilities. The practice of the preventive system demands from the educator a basic attitude based on sympathy, a willingness to contact young people, and the ability to dialogue starting with their problems and their language.
Prevention. For Don Bosco, prevention meant arousing energies of good by relying on the generosity and drive of the young person when involved in wide-ranging proposals, and by relying on the help that comes from faith and prayer.
Reason, Religion, Lovingkindness: the three foundations of the preventive system, “…it points to a threefold joint inspiration that interpenetrates and animates all the individual aspects of Don Bosco’s educational and pastoral experience.” Reason, the living sense of genuinely human and at the same time Christian values: the value of the person, conscience, human nature, culture, the world of work, social living, respect for the environment and nature. Religion, which must illuminate the purpose of educational action, must contribute to “forming the upright citizen because a good Christian,” rooted in daily reality, made up of work, relationships, labors, in the presence of God and availability to his grace. Loving-kindness, which means, for Don Bosco, sympathy and willingness to contact the young person, capacity for dialogue and mutual trust, total dedication for his growth. It indicates the indispensability of the presence of the educator who makes himself a friend, involves himself in such a way that he is not considered a superior but a father, a brother and a friend.
Don Bosco’s preventive system places interpersonal relationships at the basis of the education of young people and children and, its three foundations, are translated into means and methods that are expressed in the spirit and style of the “family,” in a serious and committed atmosphere, always tempered by spontaneity, joy, individual and group activity, protected and promoted by the continuous presence of educators and their assistance. Today we live in a time of crisis, marked by major economic, technological and cultural changes. We are aware that one of the most important problems of our society is the education of children, adolescents and young people. Educating, offering personal life ideas, life plans for the future, a strong identity, are important and very present tasks today, as in Don Bosco’s time.
The mission, begun by Don Bosco, continues to this day through the activities and projects of MetaCometa, which firmly believes that every child has the right to grow up in a family that loves and protects him or her, and strives daily to achieve this goal.
