DON BOSCO PREVENTIVE SYSTEM

DON BOSCO'S EDUCATIONAL MODEL

Joaquín Díaz Atienza

Introduction

Juan Melchor Bosco Occhiena, Universally known as Don Bosco, he was born in Becchi (Italy) on August 16, 1815, dedicating his entire life to the education of the most needy youth of his time.

Their educational model rests on two fundamental pillars: the Preventive System and the Assistant-Educator. It is a model that aims to empower young people by making them responsible for their actions within a personal project of social commitment and self-reliance.

Naturally, his spirituality is Christian, although his educational model is perfectly suitable for application in any educational project that believes in the possibilities of personal growth of the human being, as well as in his transcendence through the construction of history.

Therefore, we participate without prejudice in the fundamental aspects of your Preventive System, as I consider it an appropriate tool for the liberation and emancipation of our children and young people.

Below I briefly outline his Preventive System. I have introduced some nuances and minor changes to adapt it to the multicultural and pluralistic context in which our society operates today.

System Don Bosco Preventive School (SP)

The different updates that the original Don Bosco Preventive Program has undergone (SP) These factors have contributed to its recognition today as one of the best tools for values ​​education for children and young people in our current society—a multiracial, multireligious, and multicultural society. This new society in which we live needs tolerance and acceptance of diversity as the best way to foster coexistence.

Don Bosco said that education is the “a great art of shaping man and offering him valid points of reference to anchor his existence”: These pillars are the axes on which the SP is based:

• To create an environment that facilitates encounter, understanding and dialogue through empathetic attention to each child and young person in particular.
• To create an environment of freedom, participation and relationships between children and young people based on friendship.
• The SP is modern, open, tolerant, and based on humanist optimism.

But what is SP?

The SP is structured around two axes with a preventive purpose:

• As an educational and/or re-educational methodology, it aims not only to prevent risky experiences but also to stimulate emotional and cognitive maturation processes to generate individual resilience factors.
• As a method of education for life and spirituality. It is about the integration of Reason, Spirituality, and Love.

In our specific case, we act on two preventive levels: primary and secondary prevention.

• With regards to  Primary prevention¹, Because we educate with the aim of helping our children acquire skills to protect themselves from risk, as well as self-discovery and the development of individual resilience.

Historically, we have focused on identifying risk factors in any situation or individual in order to act upon them and prevent certain negative events, or by generating what are known as protective factors. However, this negative view of human beings has given way to another that considers the individual's own tools for successfully coping with the many setbacks life throws at us: these are the resilience factors that we must discover within each of us.

Through our activities, we aim to help families, children, and young people discover their strengths and weaknesses to facilitate their growth as parents, as children, and ultimately, as citizens.

• We also perform in secondary prevention² Given that some of our children and young people, as well as their families, possess characteristics that make them especially vulnerable, it is important to emphasize that any family approaching JSM with their children must understand and accept that JSM is comprised of families from very diverse backgrounds and socioeconomic conditions. This is because we are open to diversity and because we are founded on the belief in the most radical humanist values.

Families in situations of special need will be provided with all the tools at our disposal to help them discover their own resilience. In this secondary prevention process, we must all participate in a genuine process of mutual support.

What What is meant by Reason, Spirituality, and Love?

• REASON

This refers to the fact that, through our educational intervention, we aim to equip our students with the metacognitive resources necessary to learn how to learn. Ultimately, this means enabling them to acquire skills through personal reflection on the interpretive frameworks ingrained in their personalities, and to free themselves from the negative influences of the media and from cultural customs and practices that negatively condition their decision-making. It also means freeing themselves from the self-serving influences of certain social and economic structures that manipulate them.

In this regard, we propose:

• Critical attitude based on knowledge.
• Developing motivation.
• Freedom as a result of reflection and criticism.

Development of emotional and social intelligence, not just efficiency and utilitarianism.

• SPIRITUALITY.

Don Bosco's spirituality is based on the personal encounter with Christ.

It is part of our mission to guide and support each of our members in the various religious options they may have. In other words, we will provide educational support to all boys and girls who wish to deepen their particular faith, regardless of their creed, and according to our resources.

Furthermore, it is important to emphasize that we believe in the spiritual dimension of the person and, as such, it forms part of our educational project. It is a spiritual education based on tolerance and freedom.

• LOVE

Some quotes from Don Bosco:

“I am well here with you: my life is precisely to be with you.” “May young people not only be loved, but also know that they are loved.”

"I by vosotros study, by vosotros I work, I live for you, and I am for you. ready even to giving their lives.”

However, the word "love" is currently out of fashion, even discredited and suspected of weakness. For many, this word is excluded from any educational project, despite the fact that experience tells us how essential love—kindness—is for certain children to thrive in their learning process. We need to feel loved. Today, as always, it remains a valid pedagogical tool. Kindness, warmth, and genuine, transparent affection are the best guarantee for overcoming difficulties.

We are referring to love in welcoming the person, in the help we offer, an empathetic accompaniment as a way to facilitate the development of skills.

Preventive System and Resilience

Resilience is fundamental to our work because of its implications for our comprehensive educational project. The most commonly used definition of resilience is:

“Resilience is the human faculty that allows individuals, despite going through adverse and stressful life situations, to emerge not only safe, but even positively transformed by the experience.”

Resilience is not exclusive to individuals, but also to groups, establishing an interrelationship between the two. The group can foster the resilience of its members to the extent that it is also resilient.

Resilience and education

Until Werner's research in 1992, vulnerability factors were considered more important than resilience or protective factors. Ultimately, and by extension, genetic fragility was given more weight than the capacity or difficulty in coping with risky situations.

However, these and other studies have shown that the most positive influence is a close and loving relationship with a significant adult, with mentors being one of the most important elements of resilience. Hence the need for solid training.

Today, on the contrary, we are more focused on detecting risks (pathology) than on seeking out and developing our children's strengths and abilities. Resilience is not something we are born with, but rather something we acquire through social and intrapsychic processes stemming from bonding and secondary attachment with others.

In this regard, we propose to increase resilience through:

• The enrichment of prosocial bonds.
• Set clear rules and limits.
• Learning for life through cooperation, problem-solving skills, communication skills, and decision-making.
• Give affection and support.
• Convey realistic expectations.
• Participation.

The characteristics of a resilient boy are determined based on:

• Their emotional control and impulsivity.
• Their level of self-esteem.
• The appropriate use of a sense of humor.
• Their level of autonomy.
• Capacity for empathy in their relationship with others.
• Their cognitive skills.

Therefore, it is through these characteristics that we must focus our activities aimed at implementing protective factors in our children and young people:

• Helping them to achieve a life project.
• Facilitating communication skills.
• Providing them with confidence and security.
• Encourage quality emotional reactions and situations where they can express their feelings.
• Increase self-esteem.
• Provide them with spaces and situations where they can learn to adapt to new situations and
• Increase your reflective capacity.

NOTES

1. We understand Primary prevention, the implementation of all measures necessary to prevent a particular problem from occurring.
2. We understand secondary prevention,The implementation of the necessary measures so that, once a problem has arisen, the situation returns to normal, its negative consequences do not occur, or these are minimal..