The preventive system is a value-based educational system which was developed by Don Bosco during the 19th century. The ultimate aim of the preventive system was not just to render young people profitable for the economy, but as a method for them to find autonomy in life, becoming “good Christians and honest citizens”.
The preventive system is the unifying educational basis for working with youth in the worldwide Don Bosco Movement. This educational system has proven to be a successful model and inspiration for educators on different continents, in multicultural and multi-religious contexts over the centuries. As such, its implementation is the point of reference and measure of authenticity for being part of the Don Bosco Movement.
The core vision is that “for a young person today, being an honest citizen entails promoting the dignity and rights of the individual in all contexts, living with generosity in the family and preparing for family life on the basis of mutual self-giving that fosters solidarity, especially with the poorest. It means developing work skills with honesty and professional competence, promoting justice, peace and the common good in politics, respecting creating and promoting culture.”
The preventive system is the unifying educational basis for working with youth in the worldwide Don Bosco Movement. This educational system has proven to be a successful model and inspiration for educators on different continents, in multicultural and multi-religious contexts over the centuries. As such, its implementation is the point of reference and measure of authenticity for being part of the Don Bosco Movement.
The core vision is that “for a young person today, being an honest citizen entails promoting the dignity and rights of the individual in all contexts, living with generosity in the family and preparing for family life on the basis of mutual self-giving that fosters solidarity, especially with the poorest. It means developing work skills with honesty and professional competence, promoting justice, peace and the common good in politics, respecting creating and promoting culture.”
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The Preventive System of Don Bosco from the 19th century and the Universal Declaration of the Human Rights declared in 1948 are much closer than we think. Both use different language, but the content and the goals are very much similar and as such they are both supporting each other.
In our book Dignity, we published an article by Stefan Stoehr SDB, in which he compares the 30 articles of the Universal declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) with ideas of Don Bosco rooting in his prevention system. The UDHR form the moral framework on which to build our societies. This comparison between the Human Rights and the preventive system illustrates that Don Bosco's vision of citizenship education is based on a similar vision. |
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Don Bosco Youth-Net is part of the Don Bosco Movement, which means that we also apply the preventive system. The work of our member organisation often has a Human Rights dimension because of our inclusive approach, as many young people catered for in our activities are facing intrusions to their Human rights. As a Christian organisation we promote to protect the human dignity of each young person, as civil society organisation we are called to a human rights-based approach when protecting their human dignity in order to build a universal culture of Human Rights in society.
How this system is applied by us, is fully described in our publication “Few words and a lot of action”. |
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