DBWAY.IN, a new web site on education

ROME, JANUARY 25, 2010: Educating for a happy life in DON BOSCO’S WAY (www.dbway.in) is a web resource to acquaint non-Christian parents and educators with Don Bosco’s system of education.

It was inaugurated at the Salesian Headquarters by the Regional of South Asia, Fr. Maria Arokiam Kanaga in the presence of an august assembly of superiors, secretaries, communication experts, historians and representatives of different religious congregations from South Asia that belong to the Salesian family on January 23, 2010.

The creation of the website emerged from the needs of Don Bosco Institute of Technology, Kurla, Mumbai, that was eager to include nearly 70% of its teaching staff who did not profess the Christian faith in the knowledge and practice of Don Bosco’s educational method.

Don Bosco’s pedagogy that originated in the Catholic ambient of nineteen century Italy is closely linked to concepts and language that express his Catholic belief. Today with Salesians working in 130 countries, there is the urgent need to reach beyond the confines of a strictly Catholic Salesian conceptualisation. Salesians work in countries where the presence of Catholic Christianity is minimal and where implanting the Salesian charism and educational method necessarily involves the collaboration of people from other religious backgrounds.

This website is therefore timely, and will make Don Bosco’s education more accessible. With a cosmopolitan, multi-religious perspective it presents in text, diagrams, illustrations and audiovisuals the wealth of Salesian pedagogy. It also provides a variety of resources that facilitate a deeper understanding for the interested.

The project is an initiative of Peter Gonsalves, PhD, a Salesian educator, who currently teaches in the Faculty of the Sciences of Social Communication at the Salesian University, Rome.

(Courtesy BIS #1731)