Poor Johnny Learned to Read and Became Saint John Bosco.

Today, January 31 is feast day of Saint John Bosco, patron saint of
Apprentices: He negotiated new rights for apprentices, including protections from abuses. Catholic publishers, Educators: He was a pioneer in educating the poor. Magicians, Students: He was a pioneer in educating the poor and the Youth.

Saint John Melchior Bosco, was a n Italian Catholic priest, educator and writer. His theory of education could well be said was ahead of his time or that the modern education system lost its way. His was a preventive system, rejecting corporal punishment and placing students in surroundings removed from the likelihood of committing sin. He advocated frequent reception of the sacraments of Penance and Holy Communion. He combined catechetical training and fatherly guidance, seeking to unite the spiritual life with one’s work, study and play.

Occam’s Razor suggests the education system lost its way. Just today, representative Thomas Massie introduced Bill H.R. 899 to terminate the US Department of Education. More on that later.

A follower of the spirituality and philosophy of Francis de Sales, Bosco was an ardent devotee of the Virgin Mary under the title Mary Help of Christians. He later dedicated his works to de Sales when he founded the Salesians of Don Bosco, based in Turin. Together with Maria Domenica Mazzarello, he founded the Institute of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians, now commonly known as the Salesian Sisters of Don Bosco, a religious congregation of nuns dedicated to the care and education of poor girls. He taught Dominic Savio, of whom he wrote a biography that helped the young boy be canonized. He is one of the pioneers of mutual aid societies that were initiated as collaborative financial support to young migrant Catholic workers in the city of Turin. In 1850, he drew up regulations to assist apprentices and their companions when any of them was involuntarily without work or fell ill.


While working in Turin, where the population suffered many of the ill effects of industrialization and urbanization, he dedicated his life to the betterment and education of street children, juvenile delinquents, and other disadvantaged youth. He developed teaching methods based on love rather than punishment, a method that became known as the Salesian Preventive System.

John was little more than two years old, when his father died, leaving the support of three boys to his mother. She played a strong role in John's formation and personality, and was an early supporter of her son's ideals. In 1825, when he was nine, John had the first of a series of dreams that would play an influential role in his outlook and work. This first dream "left a profound impression on him for the rest of his life" according to his memoirs. John saw a multitude of very poor boys playing and blaspheming, and a man, who "appeared, nobly attired, with a manly and imposing bearing", and said to him, "You will have to win these friends of yours not with blows, but with gentleness and kindness. So begin right now to show them that sin is ugly and virtue beautiful."

Poverty prevented any serious attempt at schooling. His early years were spent as a shepherd, and he received his first instruction from Don Calosso who "was impressed by John’s memory and understanding of the sermons he had heard at a parish mission in a nearby Church." His childhood experiences are thought to have inspired him to become a priest. Being a priest was then more commonly a profession for the privileged classes than for farmers.


In 1830, he met Joseph Cafasso, a young priest who identified some natural talent and supported his first schooling. John's mother, Margherita, managed to earn enough money to finance his education. In 1835, Bosco entered the seminary at Chieri, next to the Church of the Immacolata Concezione. In 1841, after six years of study, he was ordained a priest on the eve of Trinity Sunday by Archbishop Franzoni of Turin. He was twenty-six years old.

His service to young people started when he met a poor orphan in Turin, and instructed him in preparation for receiving Holy Communion. He then gathered young apprentices and taught them catechism.

After serving as chaplain in a hospice for working girls, Don Bosco opened the Oratory of St. Francis de Sales for boys. Several wealthy and powerful patrons contributed money, enabling him to provide two workshops for the boys, shoemaking and tailoring

By 1856, the institution had grown to 150 boys and had added a printing press for publication of religious and catechetical pamphlets. John’s preaching fame spread and by 1850 he had trained his own helpers because of difficulties in retaining young priests. In 1854, he and his followers informally banded together, inspired by Saint Francis de Sales.

With Pope Pius IX’s encouragement, John gathered 17 men and founded the Salesians in 1859. Their activity concentrated on education and mission work. Later, he organized a group of Salesian Sisters to assist girls.

Fast forward to 2025 America.  Students can't read at grade level in Illinois schools.

More than 20% of students in fifth through seventh-grade trip over words they don’t recognize and can’t sound out.

Students are too stupid to figure out which courses to take to enroll in the CUS/CSUS

California experts can't agree on how much math is required for admissions  to the CA US

Nearly 10 million jobs across America are still vacant because of society's 'harebrained' decisions and college push.  AND the most on-demand jobs of the next decade don't require a college degree

Going Forward Backwards

The death of Martin Luther King Jr.  cleared the way for the uber progressive Warren Court's Decision (1963) -  the Court found that teaching children about wisdom, understanding, counsel, fortitude, knowledge, piety,  fear of the Lord., charity, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness, modesty, self-control and  chastity was too radical, and all hell broke lose.  A decade later Roe v. Wade entered the picture.

Using analysis tools like the Ishikawa Cause-Effect Diagram, the Pareto Rule, Security Professionals' Attack Tree and or Occam's Razor, they all suggest that after the u

Warren SCOTUS  (1963) decision, we have had a mental health crisis. Infanticide turned into Black Genocide. African American nuclear family has joined the Sea Turtles in the extinct list. 80% of AA kids are raised in fatherless homes. AIDS epidemic. Opiod crisis, We have a fatherlesssness crisis, A Girlhood Crisis, A Trans Crisis, Obesity crisis.

Prayer to Saint John Bosco

• "Saint John Bosco, pray for us! Friend of the young, Teacher in the ways of God, Your dedication to empowering the needy inspires us still". 
"Saint John Bosco, father and teacher of the young, in need of special help, I appeal with confidence to you". 
"Saint John Bosco, I need your help, I need your prayers, I need your intercession to God for His grace to help me with...". 
"Saint John Bosco, Shepherd of the young and Beacon of Hope for the innocent, we beseech you to envelop them with your protective embrace". 

Intentions in a prayer to Saint John Bosco

To work for a better world where the young can flourish 
To see Christ in all people and build them up as a loving minister of God's compassionate heart 
To obtain spiritual and temporal graces 
To accept the Will of God and trust in Him