cause a lot of trouble and are unable to understand what we are teaching them.722

The Rules for the houses notably restricts the age limit when Don Bosco that the pupil “must have completed his grammar school”723as a condition for acceptance. In practice though, most of the boarding schools for students had a grammar school program in place or at least the last two years of grammar school. Ultimately, most of the institutions (oratories, hospices, boarding schools) were open to boys whose age went from childhood to early and late adolescence so from approximately 8 to18 years of age, but probably most were between 12 and 16.

As far as the terminology used by Don Bosco in his talks and in his writings is concerned, there is some inevitable variation. Italian and Latin: fanciulli, fanciullini, giovani, giovanetti, pueri,

adolescentes, adulescentuli, juvenes (children, little children, adolescents, in general terms) were generally inter-changeable. Only 'fanciullo’, ‘giovanetto’ appear to be distinct, as they designate boys from the age of 8 to 11.

The booklet on The work of Mary Help of Christians for vocations to the ecclesiastical state created in the Hospice of St. Vincent De Paul at Sampierdarena seems to make a broad distinction between young adults or big boys or bigger boys (giovani adulti, o grandicelli o piu grandicelli), from 16 to 30 years of age, andchildren (fanciulli), little children (piccolini).724

2.2 Features of youth psychology

We should not expect from a scientific study of age ranges from Don Bosco, which would allow us to clearly distinguish various developmental stages. However, at times some of the features pointed out by Don Bosco can be connected with one developmental stage rather than another. It is especially important to remark that Don Bosco's perception of the psychology of the young for whom he worked was strictly connected with his view of pastoral and pedagogical activity as a whole.

In defining the features proper to youth, Don Bosco ended up using descriptive terms but ones which also evaluated things positively or negatively according to how a young person was ready for education or according to the requirements of salvation.

Don Bosco seemed to link the moral and religious aspects of these features with judgement that was more negative than positive, and considered features in need of correction rather than ones that could be employed. Often enough youthfulness was implicitly compared with adulthood. For instance, the incompleteness of youth contrasts with the completeness of adulthood; the fickleness of youth with the poise of adulthood; youthful lack of reflection with adult wisdom; fickle youth with emotionally stable adults.725 Naturally, other terms are not omitted which point to positive elements like availability, and

positive potential such as sensitivity, impressionability and 'heart'.

More numerous and reflective remarks appear time and again in the pages of the 1877 'preventive

system'. Similar remarks can be found in the writings going back to the 1840s and in particular the

Companion of Youth, and they are repeated and enriched in the 'Lives' written during the 1850s and 60s.

722Regolamento dell'Oatorio...per gli esterni, part II, Chap II, art. 3, p. 30. OE XXIX 60.

723Regolamento per le case..., part II, Chap II, art.9, p. 62. OE XXIX 158.

724S. Pier d'Arena, St Vincent de Paul Print and Bookshop 1877, p. 4,5,25, OE XXIX 4, 5, 25. Cf also Opera di Maria

Ausiliatrice per le vocazioni allo stato ecclesiastico. Fossano, Saccone Printshop, s.d. [=1875]: “The purpose of this

Work is to bring together young men... Each pupil must belong to an upright family, be healthy, robust, of good

character, between 16-30 years old”; also in this edition, fanciulli and piccolini were contrasted with giovani

grandicelli: pp 2-5, OE XXVII 2-5.

725Cf. J. Scheppens, Les structures de pensé, notamment théologiques, sous-jacentes à la pratique pédagogique de don

Bosco, in Éducation et pédagogie chez don Bosco. Paris Éditions Fleurus 1989, pp. 148-155. “Jean Bosco définit donc

lui aussi les jeunes comme des etres faibles et inconstants, marqués par la fragilité morale et la versatilité” (p. 150).