Modern Ways of Realizing the Preventive System

Abstract

The article tackles the problem of topicality of the preventive system in education that was worked out by St Giovanni Bosco (1815-1888). It tries to answer the question if also in modern times, that are so different from the epoch, in which the Apostle of Torino lived, the style of educating young people that he proposed is still valid. Will the preventive system, based on reason, religion and love, do what is expected from it, namely, can it bring up young people and make them honest citizens and good Christians also in the new social, political, cultural and ecclesial situation?

Showing the meaning, topicality and the ever positive effect of Rev. Bosco’s system in modern education was based mainly on the analysis of the Document of the General Chapter of the 23^rd Salesian Association Wychowanie młodzieży do wiary: dzisiejsze zadanie i wyzwanie wspólnoty salezjańskiej (Educating of young people to faith: today’s task and challenge of the Salesian order) (Krakow 1990). The Salesian way to educate people to faith as an attempt to understand Giovanni Bosco’s educational system in the modern situation leads to the statement that the preventive system translated into the original program of Christian life: “The Salesian spirituality of young people” is still a living and important offer of Christian pedagogy.