austraLasia #3011
News in brief
Cebu: 6 February 2012 -- Earthquake felt on Negros (area marked yellow, left) Cebu (marked yellow right) islands in the Visayas Group, Philippines - strong earthquake on 6 February. Salesian houses affected: Dumaguete (south Negros Occidental), Bacolod, Mambucal, Talisay Lawa-An and to lesser extent Victorias and Cebu (City, Pasil, Punta Princessa Talamban). Communications affected. Thus far we presume no death or injury regarding our Salesian work and presence there. Awaiting comment on actual circumstances for these communities.
Rabaul PNG: 7 February 2012: The sinking of the Rabaul Queen off Lae, PNG's second largest city, last Thursday, is PNG's worst ferry diasaster. Many passengers were students. Our Salesian Rector at Vunabosco, near Rabaul, says: "So far I am not aware of any student or past pupil among the victims. but yes, some of the victims are relatives of our bosconians".
MUMBAI: 7 February 2012 -- From our nearest Regional neighbour, South Asia, comes news of the publication, on 31 January, of Salesian Fr Kenneth Pereira's book, Nurturing Presence: A Spirituality for Educators Based on the Pedagogical Insights of Don Bosco and Carl Rogers.
While much has been written on the means of bringing about the integral growth of the young, comparatively little has been written about the concomitant growth of those who regularly deal with them, namely parents, educators and youth workers. This book will hopefully fill that lacuna. The growth-oriented vision that this book offers is a blend of ideas and insights from Don Bosco and Carl Rogers, tracing their origins to the Bible itself. The common thread that runs through the entire book is the theme of nurturing presence.
His Eminence Cardinal Oswald Gracias, Archbishop of Bombay, commenting on the book states: “This book is written in elegant language, and navigates through various disciplines: Spirituality, Scripture, Philosophy, Theology, Psychology and Pedagogy, weaving them into a ‘seamless robe’ for all educators to wear. The book shows how the pedagogical insights of Don Bosco, the great educationist of the nineteenth century, can be made relevant for our times and circumstances by supplementing them with some of the ideas of Carl Rogers, the famed twentieth century American Psychologist.”
In the first Chapter, Fr Pereria explains what he is attempting to do: "As far as the printed evidence goes, neither Carl Rogers nor Don Bosco characterised the educator’s presence to his students or charges as a ‘nurturing’ presence. And yet, when we read between the lines of their writings, one gets the distinct impression that at the heart of their recommended practice of presence and rapport is the will to nurture the growth of the educand, though we must hasten to add that Rogers and Bosco have very different perceptions of growth" He goes on to say: "In his book, Animating the Young, Jerome Vallabaraj claims that faith and morality are at the very heart of the mission of the nurturer. He describes the nurturer as a person of an earlier generation who gives care and sustenance to members of a subsequent generation. Nurturing involves a continual and delicate balancing of the dependency scales, so as to provide the youngster with adequate amounts of support and dependency while at the same time encouraging autonomous and independent functioning. While all these specifications would fit Don Bosco’s educational spirituality almost perfectly, Rogers would probably feel uneasy about them. For Rogers, the age difference between educator and educand is of no significance. Furthermore, Rogers would certainly not place faith and morality at the heart of his educative mission. Nevertheless, I persist in claiming that the presence of the educator to the educand—even in Rogerian praxis—is a nurturing presence... understood however, in a broader sense, as being deliberately growth-producing".
For further details contact: Tej-Prasarini, Don Bosco Communications, Matunga, Mumbai 400019. E-mail: tej_dbc@vsnl.net, Website: www.tejonline.com
News in brief
Cebu: 6 February 2012 -- Earthquake felt on Negros (area marked yellow, left) Cebu (marked yellow right) islands in the Visayas Group, Philippines - strong earthquake on 6 February. Salesian houses affected: Dumaguete (south Negros Occidental), Bacolod, Mambucal, Talisay Lawa-An and to lesser extent Victorias and Cebu (City, Pasil, Punta Princessa Talamban). Communications affected. Thus far we presume no death or injury regarding our Salesian work and presence there. Awaiting comment on actual circumstances for these communities.
Rabaul PNG: 7 February 2012: The sinking of the Rabaul Queen off Lae, PNG's second largest city, last Thursday, is PNG's worst ferry diasaster. Many passengers were students. Our Salesian Rector at Vunabosco, near Rabaul, says: "So far I am not aware of any student or past pupil among the victims. but yes, some of the victims are relatives of our bosconians".
"Nurturing Presence"
While much has been written on the means of bringing about the integral growth of the young, comparatively little has been written about the concomitant growth of those who regularly deal with them, namely parents, educators and youth workers. This book will hopefully fill that lacuna. The growth-oriented vision that this book offers is a blend of ideas and insights from Don Bosco and Carl Rogers, tracing their origins to the Bible itself. The common thread that runs through the entire book is the theme of nurturing presence.
His Eminence Cardinal Oswald Gracias, Archbishop of Bombay, commenting on the book states: “This book is written in elegant language, and navigates through various disciplines: Spirituality, Scripture, Philosophy, Theology, Psychology and Pedagogy, weaving them into a ‘seamless robe’ for all educators to wear. The book shows how the pedagogical insights of Don Bosco, the great educationist of the nineteenth century, can be made relevant for our times and circumstances by supplementing them with some of the ideas of Carl Rogers, the famed twentieth century American Psychologist.”
In the first Chapter, Fr Pereria explains what he is attempting to do: "As far as the printed evidence goes, neither Carl Rogers nor Don Bosco characterised the educator’s presence to his students or charges as a ‘nurturing’ presence. And yet, when we read between the lines of their writings, one gets the distinct impression that at the heart of their recommended practice of presence and rapport is the will to nurture the growth of the educand, though we must hasten to add that Rogers and Bosco have very different perceptions of growth" He goes on to say: "In his book, Animating the Young, Jerome Vallabaraj claims that faith and morality are at the very heart of the mission of the nurturer. He describes the nurturer as a person of an earlier generation who gives care and sustenance to members of a subsequent generation. Nurturing involves a continual and delicate balancing of the dependency scales, so as to provide the youngster with adequate amounts of support and dependency while at the same time encouraging autonomous and independent functioning. While all these specifications would fit Don Bosco’s educational spirituality almost perfectly, Rogers would probably feel uneasy about them. For Rogers, the age difference between educator and educand is of no significance. Furthermore, Rogers would certainly not place faith and morality at the heart of his educative mission. Nevertheless, I persist in claiming that the presence of the educator to the educand—even in Rogerian praxis—is a nurturing presence... understood however, in a broader sense, as being deliberately growth-producing".
For further details contact: Tej-Prasarini, Don Bosco Communications, Matunga, Mumbai 400019. E-mail: tej_dbc@vsnl.net, Website: www.tejonline.com
