The starting point can be placed in May 1994, when the "Latin American Meeting for the Study of the Salesian Educational Process and Emerging Cultures" was held in Cumbayá (Ecuador). The meeting was convened and chaired by the then Councillors for Youth Ministry: Sister Georgina McPake (FMA) and Fr Luke Van Looy (SDB). The meeting was attended by 117 delegates from the various American provinces of both Congregations.
What remains from this date? What initiatives have emerged from this experience?
Sister Ivone Yared, with 54 years of experience in the field of education, at the time engaged in the National Educational Pastoral Team of the FMA of Brazil (EQUIPEDE), recalls: "The ecclesial context that was being experienced, after the Fourth Latin American Conference (Santo Domingo, 1992), in the face of the crisis of modernity and post-modernity, required a New Evangelisation, an active laity, continuous education to the faith, a renewed option for the poor, at the service of life and the family; an inculturated evangelisation which penetrated the environments marked by urban culture, among other emerging issues. In Cumbayá, experiencing the turmoil of all Latin American schools, our pains, our possibilities, we took up the Preventive System as pedagogy, ministry and spirituality already as a possible attempt to form a network of reflection and common action."
From that moment on, concrete options for the animation of schools emerged, which focused mainly on three dimensions:
- The youth situation and its operational lines: youth leadership, technology and new languages, formation pathways;
- Salesian charism and educational process: to restructure educational works and services with courage, in the light of their significance; to learn about youth phenomenology and study emerging cultures;
- Salesian school and management: with attention to educational quality, professionalism; continuous process of formation in the area of school management for lay leaders; integrated educational community - critical interaction with existing processes in various cultural contexts.
As EQUIPEDE we embarked as a team on this journey, and as a result, several educational projects and processes came about in the schools of the Province, gradually inserting ourselves into a shared process."
Fr Héctor Ugarte, a Salesian from Mexico with a long educational career in his Province, experienced this meeting as "a very interesting experience, because for the first time we met and got to know each other. This has led to a commitment for us in Mexico, which continues today, to create a national team. In Cumbayá, the team we call ENES (EQUIPONacional Escuelas Salesianas - National Team of Salesian Schools) was created and from there we began to work together, SDB and FMA."
For Sister Olga Winkelried from the St Rose of Lima Province, Peru, Cumbayá was an important moment because "all the schools of the continent were motivated to give strength to Salesian education, starting from their cultural context, which in each country is very rich and multifaceted." The educational context of his country was undergoing changes promoted by the Ministry of Education, which required strong teacher training to improve the quality of learning for all. Participation in this experience made it possible to design significant paths, such as "rethinking our way of educating young people through school, in order to respond to the needs and concerns of the cultural context"; "promoting greater collaboration - real and effective - between the SDB, FMA and lay people to obtain a greater impact in evangelisation and human promotion"; "developing a new approach to the education of young people through school, in order to respond to the needs and concerns of the cultural context".
Sister Patricia Perisset, from Argentina, places the Cumbayá 1994 event in the framework of a profound educational transformation that took place in her country, promoted by the Federal Education Law (1993) which modified the structure of the Education System. The new law introduced the 9-year Basic General School and the 3-year Polymodal Level. "There was also a whole process of restructuring and teacher training, and a great movement that put school education at the centre of the debate between teachers and managers, but also in families and in Argentine society in general." From the meeting in Cumbayá and from all the reflections and sensitizations made together, "the SAS (Argentine Salesian Secretariat) came into existence for the school, in which two representatives, religious or lay, of the schools of each of the SDB and FMA Provinces of the country participate. It is an instance of common reflection on important issues that constitute the life and dynamics of educational centres, and it is also a space for the production of materials."
The 1994 meeting in Cumbayá marked a before and after for the educational work of the Salesian Family on the continent. On a personal and professional level, what did this meeting mean for you?
"For me it meant strengthening my Salesian vocation at the service of education, making me realise that my work was not isolated, but that there were many other Salesians who worked in the same field, perhaps with the same problems or with similar problems" says Fr Ugarte.
Sister Perisset speaks with a great sense of gratitude: “On a personal level, this meeting was very important because it meant for me the beginning of a deeper and more committed work at the service of the schools of the Province. Within our wonderful Salesian vocation, which leads us to give all our energies to God for the good of the education of young people, Cumbayá 1994 also meant a confirmation of this call to realise this vocation at the service of formal education and in the accompaniment of school principals and teachers, so that our homes are emotionally stimulating, intellectually challenging spaces and places of encounter with Jesus, the God of Life."
For Sister Yared, remembering Cumbayá I is confirming the certainty that educating is evangelising: “I have always dreamed and sought quality education as a space for evangelisation. I have always believed that schools and educational environments evangelise, and I have always given priority to ‘pastoral care‘, that is, to considering evangelisation and education inseparable. And if we want young saints, we must train holy educators who experience God through the knowledge they transmit. Therefore, this meeting confirmed that my beliefs were based on a common dream of America's educators, and gave new meaning to our educational practice. As coordinator of the schools of my Province (BCG), I was able to enhance the educational work of the schools as a process of evangelisation in terms of project mentality, democratic participation, enhancement of solidarity, social responsibility, respect for the person, subsidiarity and shared responsibility."
"Personally, it was a great opportunity to strengthen my vocation as a Salesian educator, because it meant deepening the educational system of Don Bosco, lived with creative fidelity, to the feminine, by Mother Mazzarello and her first sisters. I was very enthusiastic about this work because, although I could not devote as much time as I would have liked to this great task, I was able to involve many lay people in this challenge, which has greatly enriched the schools commission of our Province. There was the support of all the educational communities" Sister Winkelried says by way of summary.
Finally, after this thirty-year journey, and considering the current educational context, what do you think is the future of the Salesian School in America?
Fr Ugarte integrates the importance of inclusion in educational processes, based on Salesian pedagogy. "I think this can help a lot in the great challenges that education poses to us today; I think educating a child today is more complex, but we have the tools. We do not make selections, but we take care of the different needs of children to offer them a way out."
Sister Perisset underlines the conviction that ESA will be able to continue to guide and make contributions to educational communities, the Church and society, to the extent that, being faithful to the charism that God continues to give to his children, it will be able to respond to the deep needs of young people. "I believe that, just as new challenges and situations arise every day in our societies and in our schools, and just as the Holy Spirit always makes all things new and continues to encourage and inspire his children, in docility to grace, Salesian educators will always be called to share these gifts and this reflection to continue to encourage and enrich the educational work of schools in every corner of the continent. The future is always promising and full of hope."
For Sister Winkelried, the future of ESA, as a continental network, must continue to be a significant contribution to Salesian educational reflection, consolidating the educational presence in America for the good of all, especially the most disadvantaged. It is important, she points out, that "we go ahead with the same criteria, leaving aside everything that hinders the construction of the ideal proposed in these meetings. I believe that it is an exciting challenge and that it will be possible to overcome it to the extent that the continuity of those who animate the processes will be taken care of, as well as the involvement of ALL agents, starting with men and women religious, so that we can contribute to the transformation of our societies, which are in great need of good Christians and upright citizens who contribute to the integral good of all."
Finally, Sister Yared responds by paraphrasing the prophet Isaiah: "Put down the stakes and spread the tent" - to walk in step with the times, open to reality, without losing the common thread of the Salesian charism. Walk with the times, educate by evangelising and evangelise by educating, in the various contexts in which we are present and in which we will be called. Already today it is possible to see how the ESA, gradually configuring itself as an animating institution, has allowed a path of unity and collaboration between countries and regions, between different initiatives; it has given rise to processes that make it possible to guarantee education in the present, facing current challenges from various perspectives and converging on short and medium-term work plans, always in a shared construction and with a continental projection."
The next meeting, which will begin on May 1 in the city of Guadalajara (Mexico), will be a new opportunity for everyone to promote vocational and pastoral commitment in the educational mission, looking for ways forward that will give children and young people the training they need, and that will help them live more fully as good Christians and upright citizens of the 21st century.
For more information, visit: www.escuelasalesianaamerica.org/esav
