The challenges of continuity and adaptation in Salesian pedagogy
Pascual Chávez Villanueva
Looking back over the different approaches to Salesian pedagogy, it is clearly visible that don Bosco’s first formulations on educational matters appear decidedly «outdated», linked to a world that no longer exists. On the one hand, an in-depth update of Salesian pedagogy is necessary according to the developments and needs of our time. On the other hand, in order to be faithful to the original generative intuitions, it is equally necessary to make our own the content and method of the Preventive system. In this perspective, three proposals will be developed: the relaunch of the «honest citizen» and the «good Christian» by opening up to the human rights perspective; the return to young people with greater qualification allowing educators to identify the matrices of today’s youth mentality; an «education of the heart» that is cultivated by listening to oneself and the other: his needs, his feelings, his expressions and his ability to act.
Keywords
Salesian pedagogy, preventive system, don Bosco, pedagogical actualization, christian humanism.