Teachers and Learners · Week 4 · Grades 9–12
Guided Notes: St. John Bosco
- Name
- Date
- Class
Follow along as your teacher presents. Fill in each section when its slide is on the screen.
From Becchi to Turin
John Bosco was born in blank 1 to a peasant family at Becchi, in Piedmont. His father died when he was two, and his mother, Margaret Occhiena, raised her sons in real poverty.
In his memoirs he described a dream at about age nine that he came to read as a calling: to win rough boys by blank 2 instead of force. He learned juggling and acrobatics to gather his neighbors, then led them in prayer.
He worked his way through school, was ordained in blank 3 and went to Turin. There his mentor, St. Joseph Cafasso, took him into the city’s prisons.
A life in context
Write what happened in each year.
| Year | What happened |
|---|---|
| 1815 | Write your answer |
| 1841 | Write your answer |
| 1846 | Write your answer |
| 1859 | Write your answer |
| 1861 | Write your answer |
| 1872 | Write your answer |
| 1875 | Write your answer |
| 1888 | Write your answer |
The industrial city
Turin in the 1840s was industrializing. Boys came from the blank 4 to work as bricklayers, chimney sweeps and shop hands. They had no family nearby, no schooling and no protection from employers.
Don Bosco answered with the blank 5: a home, a school, a church and a playground in one place. He opened evening classes and workshops for shoemaking, tailoring, bookbinding and printing. He negotiated written contracts that bound employers to treat apprentices justly.
He also wrote and published constantly, using the popular press of his day to teach the faith in plain blank 6.
Apply it
A school wants to stop cheating. Which plan best fits Don Bosco’s approach? Circle one.
- A Install cameras and expel anyone who is caught on them
- B Drop the tests so that no one is tempted to cheat
- C Have teachers close by who explain why honesty matters
- D Post the names of cheaters so that shame deters others
Why is that the right answer?
Reason, religion, loving kindness
Don Bosco named two ways to educate. The blank 7 system announces the rules, watches for violations and punishes. The preventive system puts educators among the young as fathers and friends, so that faults become unlikely.
His method stood on three supports. Reason: rules are explained, not just imposed. Religion: the sacraments, especially blank 8 and the Eucharist, are the real source of change. Loving kindness: the young must not only be loved, they must know it.
Behind the method is a theological claim. Every young person is made in blank 9’s image, and grace builds on the good already there.
Apply it
Don Bosco’s motto was “Give me souls, take away the rest.” What does it say about his priorities? Circle one.
- A The good of each person mattered more than comfort
- B Schooling and job skills were a waste of his time
- C He wanted the largest religious order in the Church
- D Material poverty is not something Christians address
Why is that the right answer?
Take a side
Don Bosco trusted presence more than surveillance. Should parents and schools monitor teenagers’ phones and online accounts?
My side: ☐ Yes, monitoring protects ☐ No, it undermines trust
- Don Bosco’s educators were always among the young. Is monitoring software a form of presence, or a replacement for it?
- He visited prisons full of boys nobody had watched over. What is the cost of too little supervision?
- The preventive system gives reasons. Does it matter whether a teen knows about the monitoring and why it is there?
- What builds the freedom to choose the good when no one is watching?
My strongest reason, with evidence from the slides:
The best argument for the other side, and my response:
Think, pair, share
Don Bosco held that it is not enough to love the young: they must know they are loved. Apps and feeds are designed to hold your attention. How is being paid attention to different from being loved, and how can you tell them apart?
Think: my idea before we talk
Sentence starters: “Attention and love differ because ...”“I know someone actually cares when ...”“One way I could make my care visible is ...”
Pair: something my partner said
Let us pray
Father, you gave St. John Bosco to the Church as a father and teacher of the young.
Give us his love for those whom others overlook, and his joy in serving you.
St. John Bosco, pray for us.
Amen.
My own prayer or intention:
Well done!
Don Bosco’s answer to a generation at risk was not a program but a presence. The Salesian family carries it on in more than 130 countries.
One thing I learned today:
One question I still have:
How could the example of St. John Bosco shape the way I live, online and offline?
Challenge: Practice presence this week: find one younger student, sibling or teammate and give them your full, phone-free attention for a real conversation.