John Bosco the Educator

St. John Bosco commonly known as Don Bosco was born on 16 August 1815 at Becchi, in Piedmont, Italy. With the loss of his father at the age of two, he had a tough time as he grew up, with his step brother. The greatness of him consists in the fact that he learned from his bitter and tough life experiences and made it a positive upbeat for his life. His mother Margarete supported him in his endeavor to study. He struggled hard to pay for his schooling. Part time jobs that he did at a bakery, with a cobbler and with other experts of various trades made him a connoisseur of many trades. Later in his life, he made use of these knowledge to impart technical education to the young at risk. He decided to become a catholic priest and joined the seminary at Turin, Italy. He was ordained a priest on 5^th June 1841. During his life as a priest of the diocese of Turin. He took care of the orphans and the poor boys of the streets of Turin who came to the town to look for work in the factories that had come up during the industrial revolution. He taught them various trades and got jobs for them. His mother and some of his friends joined him in his noble task. To continue his work, he began a society named ‘Society of St. Francis de Sales, along with his pupils. They imbibed his spirit living with him and learned from their life experience with him. At one time he had more than eight hundred students in his home for the boys which he called, “Oratory”. Later along with a young lady, Mary Mazarello he extended his work to the poor girls or Turin. After more than thirty years of his successful work among the boys he defined his method of education as ‘Preventive System of Education’. He writes about this in his autobiography. He died on 31 January 1878. He was given the title ‘father and teacher of youth’ by Pope John Paul II. Today his work extends to more than a hundred and thirty countries of the world with more than fifteen thousand ‘Salesians’ and seventeen thousand ‘Daughters of Mary Help of Christians’ working for the all-round development of the young boys and girls. Don Bosco’s uniqueness lay in his ability to involve all people of goodwill around a common project. Besides the founding of Salesian Society and Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, he set up a world-wide family of co-operators past pupils and lay volunteers. His benefactors included businessmen, government officials and even the Pope. He spent his whole life involving others for the benefit of poor and abandoned youth.