"Presence" as an important prerequisite in the "Preventive System"

“Presence” as an important prerequisite in the “Preventive System”

Cl. Mario D’Couto SDB

            Don Bosco, the founder of the Salesian Congregation who struggled to educate himself due to financial difficulties and other problems at home was himself a great educator. He never had any formal course on education. In fact, he was from a very poor background. His father died when he was just two years old. Life was hard but there was peace in the family. However, he would always get into an argument with his eldest brother, Anthony and so in order to put an end to it he was asked to leave the family. I would not want to go into the details of his life but this is just to show that he who himself was without a father would one day become the father and friend of many poor and abandoned youngsters from the streets of Turin.
           
            He is best known for his educative method called the “Preventive System.” However, the preventive system was not his own idea. There were many who already had the idea before but somehow, they were not able to implement it. Don Bosco was, so to say, a perfect eclectic where he was able to draw on the ideas and insights of many other educators who were there before him and put them into one perfect piece.
           
            He was not a theoretician. He did not write any scientific tract on the preventive system. Rather, he was busy putting into practice and actively improvising a unique brand of it. He uses the word ‘assistance’ to explain this idea on preventive system. In this context, he uses the word as a means to emphasize the preventing presence. If for example, the Assistant (a regent or a cleric in practical training) is assisting in the study hall but for some reason is busy with something else for a few minutes. In such a case it is most likely that the boys would make noise and this is precisely because there is nobody to follow them up. 


            This therefore brings us to the point that presence does make a difference. In fact, in the life of Don Bosco, it is noted that as a boy, whenever he would be present with some of the other boys of his age, they would not fight, curse or swear at each other. Thus, we see how the value of presence can be a real boon in character formation on the part of the educator. 

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