SALESIAN EDUCATOR – AGENT OF TRANSFORMATIVE CHANGE IN HUMAN BEHAVIOUR AND DEVELOPMENT
12 Nov 2025
Salesian Educator – Agent of Transformative Change in Human Behaviour and Development
-Biju Michael, sdb
Dear Salesian Educators, your mission is noble!
Your educative mission is “a great act of love”, where heart truly speaks to heart—cor ad cor loquitur (heart speaks unto heart), as St. John Henry Newman so beautifully expressed.2 Don Bosco always said that education is a matter of hearts, meaning the heart of the educator and the heart of the student in living dialogue.3 In building nations and lifting up the downtrodden, the Church sees education as an essential tool. In fact, the Church sees education as “one of the highest expressions of Christian Charity.”4 The classroom, in this vision, becomes a sacred space for full human development. For the Salesian Congregation, education is the path to the total and integral growth of every person and society, leading toward the well-being of all humanity.5
The Church continues to remind us that the great saints like Jean-Baptiste De La Salle (the founder of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools, 1651-1719) pioneered education for the poor at a time when education continued to be the privilege of a few – because they believed that education was the great tool for empowering the poor. In order to bring education to the poor, “Saint John Bosco began the great work of the Salesians in Italy, based on the three principles of the ‘preventive method’ – reason, religion, and loving kindness.”6
Dear Educators, your educative mission is an act of faith, hope and charity.
Education, an act of love, kindles hope by unveiling the promise we hold for humanity’s future and tracing new maps of hope for the young. 7 It rests on faith in the goodness inherent in every youth, as Don Bosco taught.
Your mission has the power to contribute to the development of individuals and society, to usher in fullness of joy and life (cf. Jn 10:10) for all people – a sign of the Kingdom of God.
Gathered as Salesian educators, I would like to draw our attention to articles 31, 32 and 33 which indicate that our Salesian commitment to education of young people, especially the poor (the mission of the schools) is aimed at personal and total development of the young persons entrusted to us, and that we believe in bringing about social and collective development through our educative pastoral work.
1 In writing this article I am inspired by the article “Alla ricerca degli elementi fondamentali della spiritualita personale di Don Bosco attraverso i livelli logici di sviluppo di Robert Dilts” by Carlo Loots and Colette Schaumont (Salesian and FMA from Belgium), published in Wim Collin – Paolo Vaschetto and Michal Vojtas (Editors), Testi e Contesti Salesiani: Miscellanea in onore del Prof. Aldo Giraudo (Roma: LAS, 2025) 185-205.
2 This is an expression of St Henry Newman, the new Co-patron - with St Thomas Aquinas - of the Church’s Educational Mission. Cf. Leo XIV, Address to Educators on the occasion of the Jubilee of the World of Education, (31 October 2025).
3 Cf. Miguel A ngel Garcí a Morcuende, Education is a Matter of Hearts: The Educative-Pastoral Model of the Salesians of Don Bosco, translated by Biju Michael (Bangalore: Kristu Jyoti Publications, 2022).
4 Leo XIV, Dilexit Te, Apostolic Exhortation to all Christians on Love for the Poor (4 October 2024), 68; Leo XIV, Drawing New Maps of Hope, Apostolic Letter on the Occasion of the 60th Anniversary of the Conciliar Declaration Gravissimum educationis (27 October 2025), 1.3
5 Cf. SDB Constitutions, 31, 32, 33.
6 Leo XIV, Dilexit Te, 69-70.
7 Leo XIV, Drawing New Maps of Hope, 1.3, 3.2
2Through our schools, we work for the total well-being of the young, beginning with their personal and integral development in our schools, which can bring about societal change for the better, especially in economically depressed areas, where we find resource poor youth.
Article 31 is titled “Total development”
“Our mission is a sharing in that of the Church, which brings about the saving design of God, the coming of His Kingdom, by bringing to men the message of the Gospel, which is closely tied in with the development of the temporal order (Evangelii Nuntiandi 31).
We educate and evangelize according to a plan for the total well-being of man directed to Christ, the perfect Man (Gaudium et Spes 41). Faithful to the intentions of our Founder, our purpose is to form ‘upright citizens and good Christians’ (Biographical Memoirs II, 36).”
Article 32 is titled “Personal development”
“As educators we work together with our young people to bring all their talents and aptitudes to full maturity.
According to circumstances we share our food with them and further their trade skills and cultural advancement.
Always and in every case, we help them to be open to truth and to develop in themselves responsible freedom. To this end we commit ourselves to inculcating in them a convinced appreciation of true values which will lead them to a life of dialogue and service.”
Article 33 is titled “Social and collective development
“Don Bosco saw clearly the social implications of his work.
We labour in economically depressed areas and for poor youth. We collaborate with them, educating them to a sense of moral, professional and social responsibility. In this way we contribute to the development of both people and environment.
We share in a way appropriate to religious in the witness and commitment of the Church to justice and peace. While not getting involved in ideologies or party politics, we reject everything that encourages deprivation, injustice and violence. We cooperate with all who are trying to build a society more worthy of man's dignity.
The advancement to which we dedicate ourselves in the spirit of the Gospel makes tangible the love of Christ which makes men free and is a sign that the Kingdom of God is among us”.
Gathered together in 2025 when in most of our settings we are becoming one of the many providers of education rather than unique providers of education, we are called to reflect on our priorities.
Is there something that distinguishes a Catholic/Salesian school from others?
Are our priorities the same as every other school management?
Can we set priorities in education that are different from our competitors who are also providing school education?
The answer to this will depend a lot on what we are competing for! It will depend on what is most important for us!
3Article 31 of the SDB Constitutions indicate that faithfulness to our Founder Don Bosco would mean that our priority is to form “upright citizens and good Christians”.
This would mean that the Salesian educator’s priority is uprightness and goodness.
As always, setting priority does not mean putting away other goals. It only means that we should be clear as to what is most important among the many important goals. Prioritisation requires that we “identify” what matters most in a given context, “rank” tasks, goals, or needs in order of importance or urgency, and “act” accordingly, focusing energy first on what will have the greatest positive impact.
We need to keep in mind that Catholic/Salesian schools are about an environment created by the Salesian Educative Community which has Salesians, Students, Parents, Teachers, other Collaborators. It is an environment (more than an institution) where the Preventive System and the underlying world view emanating from the Good News of love preached by Christ, permeates every discipline and every interaction, where “educators are called to a responsibility that goes beyond the work contract: their witness has the same value as their lessons”, where joint formation of Salesians and collaborators must be ongoing, where the formation goes beyond technical updates to cultivation of “a heart that listens, a gaze that encourages, and an intelligence that discerns.”8
In his book From Coach to Awakener, Robert Dilts – a highly competent and appreciated consultant in the field of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) – presents a model called the Logical Levels of Change, also known as the Seven Hierarchical Levels of Human Behaviour and Development.9 He lists them from the most external (environment) to the most internal and universal (spirit). The highest levels are listed last because they are the most foundational and transformative.
1)Environment
2)Behaviour
3)Capabilities
4)Beliefs and Values
5)Identity
6)Mission or Purpose / structures/systems
7)Spirit
This model of Robert Dilts’ offers a comprehensive lens for understanding human development. It moves from the external (environment and behaviour) to the deeply internal (identity and spirit). By working across these levels, especially the higher ones, educators, leaders, and coaches can support holistic and lasting transformation. At its highest point, this framework points to a life lived not just with skill, but with meaning, identity, and connection to the divine or the greater whole.
Though presented hierarchically, these levels are interconnected. Higher levels generally provide direction and meaning to the lower ones. For example, a strong sense of identity can guide behaviour and clarify values; a renewed sense of purpose can realign habits and beliefs. Yet lower levels — like a nurturing environment or disciplined behaviour — can also shape and support higher-level development over time. So also, a supportive environment can nurture new behaviours; developing skills can boost self-confidence and shift identity.
8 Leo XIV, Drawing New Maps of Hope, 5.2
9 Cf. Robert Dilt, Changing Belief Systems with NLP (Cupertino, California: Meta pbns, 1990).
4True transformation often occurs when higher levels — such as identity, purpose, and spirit — are addressed. Yet practical change can begin at any level, depending on the situation. Though the model is presented hierarchically, the levels interact dynamically. Thus, change is most effective when the whole system is considered.
Let us begin by understanding the levels spoken of by Dilts.
1. Environment
This is the most basic level, relating to where and when actions occur. It includes the external conditions — people, places, and circumstances — that surround a person. Questions at this level include: Where are you? Who is around you? What is happening?
Example of Environment: Dilts mentions a student who struggles to concentrate. The issue may not be the student’s ability, but the noisy classroom environment. Changing the location or reducing distractions can lead to better outcomes.
2. Behaviour
Behaviour refers to what a person does. It includes specific, observable actions or reactions in a given context. Educating at this level focuses on changing habits or practices. The guiding question is: What are you doing?
Example: An educator or a coach helping someone improve their public speaking might focus first on observable behaviours like posture, tone of voice, or use of gestures.
3. Capabilities (Skills and Strategies)
This level involves how actions are performed. It includes mental strategies, knowledge, and skills that enable or limit certain behaviours. Effective coaching here enhances a person’s ability to act wisely and competently. The question is: How are you doing it?
Example: A student may fail to secure good marks in exams not due to poor effort, but because they lack effective learning techniques. The teacher/coach may help the child learn new learning and memorising skills and strategies.
Experts like Howard Gardner with his theory of Multiple intelligences encouraged educators to pay attention to linguistic, logical-mathematical, spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, musical, interpersonal (social), intrapersonal (self-awareness), naturalist, existential intelligences). Connected to it is Benjamin Blooms proposal of a Taxonomy of Learning Outcomes that need skills to Remember, Understand, Apply, Analyse, Evaluate and Create.
4. Beliefs and Values
Beliefs and values explain why we act the way we do. Beliefs shape our understanding of reality, while values determine what we consider important or worthwhile. This level influences motivation, priorities, and decisions. The key question is: Why are you doing it?
Example: A teacher may believe, “I’m not good with technology,” which prevents him / her from integrating digital tools. Helping them shift this belief can unlock new capabilities.
5. Identity
Identity addresses the question: Who are you? It involves our sense of self — how we define our roles, personal mission, and place in the world. When transformation occurs at this level, it leads to deep and lasting change, because it reshapes the foundation of behaviour and motivation.
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Example: some individuals may say, “I’m not a leader,” and therefore avoid taking initiatives — even if they have the skills. Coaching here might involve helping them redefine their identity to include leadership potential.
6. Mission or Purpose
Also referred to as the level of purpose, this stage connects the individual to something greater than the self. It asks: For whom or what are you doing this? It may involve serving a community, a cause, or humanity. It marks a shift from personal growth to meaningful contribution.
Example: A Salesian principal may feel burnt out until he reconnects with his sense of calling to serve poorer youth, which reignites his purpose.
7. Spirit
The highest level is called Spirit — not only in a strictly religious sense, but as a recognition of being part of a greater whole. It could mean union with God, with life, with creation, or the human family. It speaks to transcendence, spiritual identity, and ultimate meaning. While this level is difficult to define precisely, it grounds the entire framework in a sense of unity and connectedness.
Example: Dilts references moments when individuals feel guided by something beyond themselves — such as a peace worker moved by a deep connection to global compassion or divine will. At this level, people experience transcendence. We can say that for the Salesian his connect to God underlies all he is. His passion for Christ to whom he has dedicated his whole life out of an experience of His love is what underlies his dedication to youth.
The Salesians’ life is itself a great teaching tool. The SDB Constitutions says, “In a world tempted by atheism and the idolatry of pleasure, possessions and power, our way of life bears witness, especially to the young, that God exists, that his love can fill a life completely, and that the need to love, the urge to possess, and the freedom to control one’s whole existence, find their fullest meaning in Christ the Saviour” (Constitutions, 62).
Applying Dilts’ Model in Education
Robert Dilts’ model provides a holistic map for understanding students, not just as learners, but as whole human persons. For educators, this model offers a structured way to diagnose challenges, design interventions, and accompany growth at various levels — from academic performance to moral, emotional, and spiritual development. According to me paying close attention to this model can also help Salesian educators to prioritize levels of engagement based on the Preventive System of education taught by Don Bosco.
1. Environment – Create a Safe and Enriching Space
•Educators’ Role: Ensure classrooms are safe, welcoming, and inspiring. Arrange learning spaces that foster concentration and inclusion.
•Special Focus: Pay attention to the physical, emotional, and social environment, especially for underprivileged or emotionally vulnerable students. Enrich the environment with Salesian presence – presence of the educator as a friend.
2. Behaviour – Guide Observable Actions
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•Educators’ Role: Address punctuality, discipline, study habits, and participation. Use clear feedback and encouragement.
•Approach: Focus on positive reinforcement, not just correction. Behavioural change often leads to inner motivation when handled with respect and consistency. Remember Don Bosco’s words that in every young person there is goodness waiting to be drawn out.
3. Capabilities – Build Skills and Confidence
•Educators’ Role: Develop cognitive, social, and emotional skills. Teach how to learn, not just what to learn.
•Approach: Provide differentiated instruction, mentorship, and problem-solving tools. Pay attention to the taxonomy of learning outcomes as proposed by Bloom or others. Many students fail not because of laziness, but because they don’t know how to succeed. Provide Salesian personal accompaniment.
4. Beliefs and Values – Foster Meaning and Motivation
•Educators’ Role: Help students examine what they believe about themselves, about life, and about learning. Encourage values like honesty, solidarity, and perseverance.
•Approach: Use storytelling, dialogue, and reflective practices. Limiting beliefs like “I’m not smart enough” must be gently challenged and replaced with empowering truths. Educate to the providence of God and values of honesty and goodness (honest citizens and good Christians).
5. Identity – Affirm the Unique Person
•Educators’ Role: Affirm each student’s dignity and unique vocation. Help them move from “I am a student” to “I am a person capable of contribution.”
•Approach: Recognise gifts, roles, and personal strengths. The Salesian educator, like Don Bosco, sees not just what the boy is, but what he can become.
6. Mission or Purpose – Inspire Contribution
•Educators’ Role: Link learning to life purpose. Help students see their education as preparation to serve others, society, and God.
•Approach: Promote service-learning, leadership opportunities, and connection to community. Especially in senior years, this level brings meaning to effort. Use Don Bosco’s system of making the young people protagonists of their personal and community development.
7. Spirit – Cultivate Transcendence and Connection
•Educators’ Role: Nurture a sense of wonder, interiority, and spiritual identity. Encourage experiences of silence, prayer, beauty, and service.
•Approach: This is the heart of Salesian spirituality — guiding young people not just to be efficient citizens, but good Christians and honest citizens. Invite them to feel part of something greater: God, humanity, or a deep life mission. This is what is enshrined in the Salesian motto: “give me souls, take away the rest”!
Here it is good to recall that, for Don Bosco, the Salesian Educator has a lofty vocation. For Don Bosco, educating the young is a sacred act which involves the sanctification of the
7 young as well as the sanctification of the educator. Through the educative work the educator helps the young person to save his/her soul and simultaneously through the educative work the educator saves his/her soul.
What Should Educators Prioritize?
What we have discussed above indicates that while all levels matter and are important, Salesian educators — in faith-based or value-centred institutions — should give special attention to the higher levels:
•Beliefs and Values (Level 4) – Because many blocks in learning are emotional or existential, not intellectual.
•Identity (Level 5) – Because students must be helped to believe in their own worth and calling.
•Mission and Spirit (Levels 6 & 7) – Because these levels sustain resilience, service, and moral growth, especially in uncertain times.
Pope Leo XIV on 31 October, in the context of the Jubilee of the World of Education, told the educators, quoting St. Augustine: “the sound of our words strikes the ears, but the true Master is within… Those whom the Spirit does not teach interiorly depart without having learned anything.” He thus reminds us that it is a mistake to think that beautiful words or good classrooms, laboratories and libraries are enough to teach. These are only means and physical spaces, certainly useful, but the Teacher is within. Truth does not spread through sounds, walls and corridors, but in the profound encounter between people, without which any educational endeavour is doomed to fail. We live in a world dominated by technological screens and filters that are often superficial, whereas students need help to get in touch with their inner selves.”10
Salesian Educators should not stop at orchestrating the environment, managing behaviour or delivering content; they are called to accompany the human and spiritual journey of the young. If this does not happen, we might be providing “soulless education.” Schools and universities that focus only on standardization of knowledge, without the bigger vision that is aimed at transformation of the person will lead only to “soulless efficiency” which is a spiritual impoverishment.11 Catholic education, to be true to its name should go beyond creating professionals to forming “people open to goodness, beauty and truth”; Catholic schools should be places of inclusion, integral formation and human development. By combining faith and culture, they sow the seeds of the future, honour the image of God and build a better society.”12
I invite each of you principals and educators to examine where most of your attention is going? Do we have the right priorities? Are we investing in the higher levels that have the greatest influence of educative transformation? External observance of many of our institutions show clear commitment to the lower levels of environment (fantastic buildings and campuses), certain amount of attention to behaviour (especially to discipline), to development of capabilities (success in exams). These lower levels are probably also most visible to evaluate. Do our institutions have clear strategies to influence the higher levels beyond the assembly talks and the sporadic moral science and
10 Leo XIV, Address to Educators on the occasion of the Jubilee of the World of Education, 31 October 2025.
11 Cf. Leo XIV, Drawing New Maps of Hope, 9.1
12 Leo XIV, Dilexit Te, 72.
8 religion classes and social activities? Are we creative enough in the most strategic levels that re capable of bringing about lasting transformation?
As we have noted in Dilt’s theory, the higher levels have the greater influence in achieving the true purpose of education. Where do we invest most?
Does not our Constitutions, art 32, call us to pay more attention to it? “Always and in every case, we help them to be open to truth and to develop in themselves responsible freedom. To this end we commit ourselves to inculcating in them a convinced appreciation of true values which will lead them to a life of dialogue and service.”
In addition, as Salesians who are committed to young people especially the poor, we must remember that “For the Christian faith, the education of the poor is not a favour but a duty.”13 Remember the question that Pope Leo addressed to the educators: “what efforts are we making to meet and respond to the needs of the most fragile, poor and excluded?”14 This is what art. 33 of the Constitutions reminds us: we work in “economically depressed areas and for poor youth”. Never forget the poor (see Gal 2:10). On a practical level, Mission Poverty Eradication initiative of the South Asia Region has asked the school sector especially in the rural areas to test the attainment of the skills of reading, writing and arithmetic. Remember what Pope Leo says about this: “literacy and numeracy are a matter of dignity even before they are a matter of competence.”15 Can the NECDBS take a resolution to join the Mission Poverty Eradication initiative of the South Asia Region to test and ensure youth in our schools and even outside in poorly manged institutions are enabled to obtain the basic-age-appropriate skills of literacy and numeracy? I hope this would be a concrete resolution emanating from NECDBS 2025.
The Pope leads us in recalling that “Where access to education remains a privilege, the Church must push to open doors and invent new paths, because ‘losing the poor’ is equivalent to losing the school itself. This applies to universities…”16
Conclusion
Dilts’ model offers us Salesian Educators a way to see beyond academic performance, recognising the whole person in our care. By attending to each level — especially beliefs, identity, and spirit — Salesian Educators can truly be guides, mentors, and awakeners, not just instructors. In the Salesian tradition, this is precisely the educator’s mission: to form not only minds, but hearts and lives, toward fullness in God and service to others.
Rightly does the sage say, “For want of leadership a people perish …” (Prov 11:14). And a similar dictum, “Where there is no vision, the people get out of hand” (Prov 29:18). As inheritors of the legacy left behind by Don Bosco, we are called to offer leadership and provide a vision for the young. The Church and society of today and tomorrow will be what we are as educators and teachers!
Fr Biju Michael, sdb
General Councillor for South Asia Region
Shillong, 6 November 2025
13 Leo XIV, Dilexit Te, 72; Leo XIV, Drawing New Maps of Hope, 2.3
14 Leo XIV, Address to Educators on the occasion of the Jubilee of the World of Education, 31 October 2025.
15 Leo XIV, Drawing New Maps of Hope, 2.3
16 Leo XIV, Drawing New Maps of Hope, 10.4