In the early 1840's Don Bosco saw that he needed to do something more for his boys. Turin was in the throes of the Industrial Revolution, and Europe was experiencing crop failures on a wide scale. Boys flooded into the big cities from the farms to find work and survival for themselves and their families. Social conditions urged Don Bosco to reach out to the defenseless and abandoned the youth without family and adult supervision or mentoring.
Left to their own devices, they lived from hand to mouth, found shelter where they could and oftentimes turned to petty thievery to survive. Frequent wars (it was a revolutionary time) left many orphans without a safety net. There was no universal education. Children, mostly boys, went to school only till the second or third grade. Girls worked at home and boys in the fields or trades. Education was for the upper and moneyed classes. The many state and religious institutions were pushed to the limit.
Don Bosco gathered youth where he found them: in the streets, doorways and alleys or working as apprentices. He organized his "Oratory," an amorphous gathering of the young on their one day off: Sunday. Imagine a horde of screaming, yelling kids running around on a quiet street or a vacant lot on the day of rest. Consequently, they met at a different site practically every week. Still, his oratory was an opportunity to gather youngsters for wholesome, relatively organized sports and for some education, both religious and social.
He soon realized that his one-day-a-week influence was easily neutralized by the six-day-a-week effect that job and exploitive employers and coworkers had on "his" boys. He saw the need for a controlled environment and a haven from antisocial and anti-Christian influences. His solution: the boarding school. He first built a hostel where the boys could live while they commuted to work and school. But they were still subject to negative influences. In 1846 he expanded his hostel to include classrooms and shops where the lads could better themselves and learn a decent trade.
From these beginnings arose Don Bosco's vast educational network of schools and oratories, religious societies and lay apostolates and outreach to the foreign missions.
Nowadays the concept of a boarding school is no longer viable except in very specialized and critical situations. Today's educational thrust, as it is with any family raising children today, is to offer a drug-free, weapon-free, gang-free atmosphere so the work of education can take place with the seriousness and concentration proper to developing minds and bodies.
Relationships also play a huge role. Youth need friendship, appreciation from adults and peers, direction, modeling and mentoring. This is where the Salesian school is unique. The school offers "something more."
The "something special" that characterizes Salesian education in any of our schools is described in the motto "Reason, Religion and Loving-Kindness." It is an attitude, a faith-stance, a life-style. The student senses "something" beyond classroom and textbooks. The faculty are friends to the students, not merely teachers. They are educators and mentors of the whole man and woman, body, mind and soul. It is loving the young person and letting her/him know it through care and concern, praise and encouragement, correction and persuasion.
The externals of a Salesian school buildings, campus, facilities, equipment and athletics are like most other schools', but the heart and soul, the aura and personality of the Salesian school are second to none and often the envy of other institutions. The Spirit of St. John Bosco pervades the school and brings an awareness of social, cultural, familial, moral and spiritual values to the whole school family: faculty, students and their families. It is mutual and reciprocal. It is a synergy. That is, the end result is greater than the sum of the parts. The leaven is the Catholic Christian Salesian Spirit that has got to be seen to be believed and lived to be understood.
In 1929 a high school seminary for the Salesians of the San Francisco Province was founded, and in 1933 a novitiate was added. The novitiate lasted a couple of years until the Eastern and Western Provinces started a combined novitiate at Don Bosco College in Newton, N.J. The Salesian Junior Seminary in Richmond continued until the growing number of seminarians necessitated a move to the St. Francis School site in Watsonville. The former seminary then became a Catholic high school for boys for the Richmond and San Pablo areas. The number of students hovered around 400-450 and became co-educational in 1989. The school provides an extremely important Catholic presence in the community, offering a stabilizing influence for northern Contra Costa County. Within the school the Salesian tradition and spirit provides an opportunity for social and ethnic understanding and cooperation while recognizing the richness of the diverse cultures of the wider community. Currently, Salesian High School is enjoying its largest enrollment ever of 470 students. With a faculty tuned into the Salesian method of education there is a burgeoning of enthusiasm toward studies and a Christian outreach to the student body and the neighborhood.
Although the first Salesians arrived in San Francisco in 1897, prior to 1940 they staffed only one parish in the archdiocese of Los Angeles and had no school in the sprawling region. During the 1930s Archbishop John J. Cantwell greatly admired the Salesians' work with young people and conceived the idea of establishing a "boys' town" similar to the one founded by Fr. Flanagan in Nebraska.
After visiting St. John Bosco's original work in Turin, Italy, Archbishop Cantwell returned to Los Angeles determined to duplicate the Salesians' "oratorian" model in his archdiocese. It was several years, however, before his negotiating bore fruit. The Salesians acquired property in Bellflower, at that time a small community surrounded by farms, dairies, and orchards. Today the city boasts a population of over 50,000 and is surrounded by the neighboring cities of Downey, Norwalk, Lakewood, and Southgate.
Construction of the school began in 1939, and the school opened its doors to 50 students in October 1940. It was touted by the local papers as the "Boys' Town of the West." Although the new institution was supposed to be an agricultural and industrial arts school, this aspect of Cantwell's dream never became a reality. Instead, it became an outstanding boarding and day school serving students from the third to the twelfth grades.
Fr. Thomas Prendiville was in the first eighth grade class. He remembers: "The friendliness of the Salesians and the camaraderie of the young brothers made a strong impression on me." Fr. Roger Luna, entering as a sixth grader, remembers the fatherliness of the first director, Fr. Ernest Giovannini.
Over the course of time the lower four grades were phased out and St. John Bosco carried on as a junior and senior high school with as many as 200 residential students. When the cost of the boarding school became prohibitive for parents, the number of day students began to outnumber the boarders by almost 3 to 1. In 1978 the boarding program was dropped and the school expanded in 1996 to accommodate over 1,000 high school students, all boys.
"Bosco," as the school is affectionately called, developed a reputation for high academic standards and consistent athletic success. Vibrant campus ministry and Christian service ministries train the students in practical Christianity. A large percentage of the faculty are alumni of the school and in their work they continue to serve faithfully as "signs and bearers of God's love to the young."
Bosco has a homepage on the World Wide Web at http://www.bosco.org. Check it out.
Don Bosco Tech opened its doors in 1955. It was the brain-child of Cardinal Francis J. McIntyre and Fr. Felix J. Penna, SDB. At a time of difficult labor relations in California, Cardinal McIntyre wanted a school which would be outstandingly Catholic and academic with a unique emphasis on technology. His first choice for staffing the innovative school was the Salesians of St. John Bosco with their tradition of religious brothers who were skilled technicians in a variety of fields. Gathering businessmen throughout the Los Angeles area, he made his proposal and elicited funds for the showcase school. Initially it imitated the day of the working man by beginning at 8:00 am and ending at 4:00 pm. It reflected the reality of the eight-hour day. Half the day was classroom and theory, and half hands-on shop and technology. The specialties were automotive, metallurgy, photolithography, mechanical arts, building arts and electronics.
The school gained national repute and eventually grew to over 1,100 students, adding a fifth year in 1989 offering an Associate of Science degree. As technology changed so did the fields offered. Today important skills are computers, networking and programming. Big name industries have contributed equipment, guest experts and finances to keep the school's technology departments at the cutting edge of and competitive in today's labor market.
The ideal of training Catholic Christian men and women to take their place in the technological, financial and business world is a high priority in order to have moral and principled leaders in a fast-paced and cut-throat environment.
Salesian High School was founded shortly after Don Bosco Tech in 1958. The Archdiocese of Los Angeles wanted a high school in the middle of the Latino barrio of East Los Angeles to provide education and moral guidance to the youth of the area being devastated by gangs, drugs and lawlessness. Again the Archdiocese asked the Salesians to staff this challenging institution.
"Salesian High South," a name used to distinguish it from "Salesian High North" in Richmond, was an academic school offering shops for learning a trade.
Once again the Salesian method of education made the school a second home to innumerable adolescents from the neighborhood. Students achieved academic excellence and went on to higher learning or equipped themselves with skills that would guarantee them jobs early in their young adult life.
Many dedicated Salesians and lay staff made great sacrifices for their charges and were rewarded with a devotion and gratitude that is touching. There grew out of this attachment an apostolic out-reach that is narrated elsewhere (Cf. : pg. 6). Athletically, Salesian High's great claim to fame was its track and field teams, especially cross country running. The cross country teams were invariably best in their league and/or placed young men in the regional and state finals so that their successes became a by-word in the high school community.
Wherever youth are at risk the Salesian schools have reached into the community to involve not only the students but their families as well. Local businesses and churches, area politicos and law enforcement have all seen the outstanding effects of Don Bosco's methods, as applied by his followers, and have supported and contributed to furthering the schools' influence in the cities and neighborhoods where they are found. This story repeats itself throughout the Salesian world on every continent in 121 countries.
Your contributions, via the enclosed envelope, bequests, endowments or contributions to the Fr. Piperni Memorial Trust (for seminarians or high school scholarships) or any other way your imagination and heart suggest, keep these works for our youth's future going and provide for the training of additional apostles for young people under the banner of Don Bosco. [SBW]