Teachers: Our Prime Collaborators

September 2024

Teachers Participate in God’s Creation: This month we gratefully remember our Teachers who have been beacons of light in our lives. They are our remarkable educators who light the path to knowledge and inspire us through their dedication, patience, and unwavering commitment. They are not just teachers; they are mentors, role models, and guiding lights. Their impact goes beyond the classroom and touches every aspect of our present and future. In fact, God presents Himself in and through the teachers, for they participate in the process of God’s creation and recreation. Their intelligence never fades away though it is shared with many. It generates many more intellectuals.

On behalf of the Jesuits of Chennai Province, I express my sincere gratitude to all the teachers in our Institutions and Centres for their tireless efforts, wisdom and kindness.

Teaching is a Vocation: Vocation is always a gift and a task. I believe, the teaching profession is also a vocation. It is a call. Therefore is a gift and a task.

Teaching is a Gift: It is a gift because teachers have the privilege to give and share their knowledge with those who persistently search for it. As teachers, they have the opportunity to form the students intellectually and impart an overall formation.

Teaching is a Task: It is not just a task of transmitting knowledge but it is a task essentially to commit oneself without counting time and energy to transform the students and eventually the society. There are many challenges in owning up to this task.

• The First challenge comes from the ambience of the present day world filled as it is with countless and mushrooming modernised technologies. Today’s students have easy access to knowledge through various platforms like the Internet and social media. At times we witness students are better informed in this area than their teachers. Hence, teachers are expected to update their knowledge in their subjects
and keep abreast of the latest trends in society, digital or otherwise. It is a challenge to all teachers, particularly to the teaching community belonging to the old school.

• The Second challenge comes from the ambience of the students and their parents. The teachers today live with a fear psychosis. They are unable to question the students, unable to take action even if the students do wrong and unable to correct them in any way. The administration in many places retracts to silence and undercuts the important role of teachers in correcting the students to find a
better path into the future.

• The Third challenge comes from the ambience of the multifaceted backgrounds of the students. Accompaniment and personal attention suffer due to the varieties of the students. Ignatian ‘cura personalis’ is a point of contention in our schools. Some of the students are from very poor family backgrounds, some socially kept low and some others culturally kept silent. The teachers need to identify these aspects of social background, and accordingly adopt appropriate pedagogies in teaching. Education is not just about imparting knowledge but about fostering understanding and addressing the inequalities that affect so many.

Our Collaborators: Dear Teachers, we the Jesuits are privileged and happy to have you as our teaching partners and collaborators in our institution. Thank you for being the pilgrims of hope and catalysts for change. Your efforts are truly making a difference and together we can build a brighter and more inclusive future. You truly make the world a better place. We appreciate your commitment and contribution to our society and Institutions.

Dedicated to Mother Mary: September is also a month dedicated to Mother Mary. We commemorate her feasts thrice this month: Her birthday, hailing Her holy name and then Her sufferings. All these three days remarkably underscore the solemn nature of our Mother. Her birth comes to the world as grace, the unfolding of the process of God’s plan. Her holy name comes to us as grace to praise her purity and holiness and Her sufferings come also as grace to concretise His plan. Let us never forget to invoke her powerful accompaniment and intensive protection for all of us in our life-mission as Jesuits.

Jebamalai Irudayaraj

Provincial – Chennai Jesuits