Orionine pedagogy
Young people are the most precious treasure of family and society. Depending on the model in which they are educated and the environment in which they grow up, they will be the sun or the storm of tomorrow.
San Luigi Orione
Don Orione does not set out with pessimism, but commits himself with the firm conviction, perfectly expressed by Saint Giovanni Bosco through a simple and effective formula: “Education is about the soul. Let the young people know that you love them! ”
Orionine pedagogy highlights and capitalizes, in its own, specific perspective, less targeted aspects in traditional education. It promotes ways of carrying out the educational process that offers other functional variants than those of the traditional school, as a result of different overviews on the great contemporary pedagogical systems, as well as on current school practices in the world. The point of reference and reporting for this pedagogy is the meaning of the term “educate”.
- To educate means: to prevent
“It’s much easier to train a young man, than to straighten a man.” Childhood is the period when the child’s physical and mental medical record is drawn up. So, I love the child today in order not to punish him later; I’m talking to him/her today, to avoid further discussion when he/she will be a teenager.
- To educate means: to be on the child’s side
He/She, the child, must be the one who makes his/her way: I cannot replace him/her, I must not take his/her place, but I must stimulate him/her; I have to encourage him/her. I stick with him/her, because that’s how I convey enthusiasm to him/her. I stick with the child, because I can guide and correct him/her, which makes it good. Encouragement, however, does him/her even better. I stick with him/her, because this attitude can unleash hidden energies.
- To educate means: to be what we want to transmit
In education, books are not everything. People are the ones who matter. Children grow up mirroring us: if they are lucky enough to see an accomplished person, they can also become an accomplished person. In fact, educating means sharing, it means being enthusiastic, and it means being original.
- To educate means: to launch challenges
Educating does not mean giving orders, but asking for services!
- To educate means: to emancipate
Educating means helping your child to stand on their own two feet. The sooner we treat our children like human beings, the sooner they will become human.
- To educate means: to propose and not to impose
When we talk about education we cannot do anything good without conscience. In education, the one who convinces wins. To educate means to propose, to convince, not to impose. Nothing educates more deeply than conviction.
- To educate means: to strive
Educating also means putting obstacles, obviously proportional to the child’s physical and mental development. Therefore, it is wrong if a child is never told “no”. This “no” helps him grow. An ordinary child with rules is certainly a child more capable of coping with difficulties.
- To educate means: to transmit security
One way to provide security and confidence to children is to be “their point of reference”, which involves fundamental educational interventions such as: order, punishment, praise. Saying “congratulations”, “good”, “I like the way you work” is another way in which parents can be points of reference. A nice and strong way. A word of praise said to the children (“congratulations, how well you did your job!”) encourages them, gives them wings.
The example is the most effective way to be a point of reference for your own child.
- To educate means: to pray
God is the great ally of teachers. And He is skilled in education, He has educated an entire people.
- To educate means: to recognize when you are wrong
No teacher or parent is perfect. Children like parents who admit that they are also wrong: “I apologize, you know, I understood that I was wrong.” The one who gets to say these words, acquires steadfastness in the child’s eyes and sends him one of the most important messages.
- To educate means: to have patience
To educate means to have patience. Education works in depth. To educate means to explain, to convince, things that require more time than to claim and oblige. It is the duty of the teacher, therefore, to sow and to have patience, even when the most sensitive part of the human soul, the sphere of love, has been harmed and wounded.
- To educate means: to leave a pleasant memory
Leaving a beautiful memory – this is also a way to educate. “One of these beautiful and blessed memories, preserved from childhood, is perhaps the best education.”