Search

Despite being the largest group in the Salesian Family, with 100,000 affiliated members worldwide, the Past Pupils of Don Bosco Movement has to date lacked a biography of their charismatic founder, the Turin-born Carlo Gastini (1833–1902), the 120th anniversary of whose death was commemorated in 2022. A family man, bookbinder and teacher, as well as occasional poet and actor, he was the first boarder at the Oratory of Saint Francis de Sales. Little was known about him, beyond three specific anecdotes. However, from 1847 to 1902, he was linked to Valdocco as a pupil (first as a day pupil and then as a boarder), seminarian, parishioner, worker and entertainer. His life was parallel to that of Don Bosco himself, who was a second father to him, and to the development of his own congregation, the Salesian Family and even Italy as a nation. The culmination of his gratitude since 1849 was the charismatic foundation, in 1870, of the Past Pupils of Don Bosco Movement, which celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2020. Its basis was simple: create an instrument of mutual help among his former colleagues, just as Don Bosco had taught them to do when they were students at the Oratory. Creating a cohesive group centred on values ​​is a proposal for facing difficulties together. In Spain, the Movement found one of its deepest-rooted abodes.

Up to 30% of the engineers in Silicon Valley in the United States are of Indian origin. And India is now one of the largest producers of technology. People of gypsy culture, because of the common Indian cultural matrix, have a greater facility for visual thinking, inductive logic and categorical flexibility. These elements, together with the consideration of the basic nucleus of socialisation that specifically constitutes the Romany families, mean that any successful pedagogical strategy must take these elements into account, always in dialogue with the school institution. Hasta un 30% de los ingenieros de Silicon Valley, en Estados Unidos, son de origen indio. Y la India es hoy uno de los mayores productores de tecnologías. Las personas de cultura gitana, por la común matriz cultural india, presentan una mayor facilidad para el pensamiento visual, la lógica inductiva y la flexibilidad categorial. Tales elementos, junto con la consideración del núcleo básico de socialización que específicamente constituyen las familias gitanas, hace que cualquier estrategia pedagógica de éxito deba contemplar estos elementos, en diálogo siempre con la institución escolar.