Rev. Prof. Dr. D. Thomas Alexander SJ

Secretary and Professor of Education

• Address : Loyola College of Education, Loyola College Campus, Nungmbakkam, Chennai - 600034 Tamilnadu, India.




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Dear Prospective teachers, Parents, well-wishers, Faculty, administrative staff and Alumni…Wishing you a great day and delighted to meet you through this portal of our institution.

Here is a message for those aspire to be an effective teacher in the society; Look at the words of John Ruskin, the famous English writer of 19th century which reads this way: “Education does not mean teaching people what they do not know; it means teaching them to behave as they do not behave. It is not teaching the youth the shapes of letters and the tricks of numbers and then leaving them to turn their arithmetic to roguery and their literature to lust. It means, on the contrary, training them in to perfect exercise and kingly continence of their bodies and souls. It is a painful, continual and difficult work to be done by kindness, watching, warning, precept and praise but above all by example”. Teaching is a kind of communication, a meeting and merging of minds. In other words, I would define the term “teaching “as just “reaching”: that is, reaching the students in all the ways possible – academically, socially, spiritually, economically, culturally, physically and psychologically / emotionally.

Reach out to every person in your classroom physically so that he or she feels your presence empirically; Appreciate him their whenever the person remains superior, good or constructive in his / her ideas. Let your physical proximity bring the person the needed support for him. In the same way, satisfy the academic needs of the person by breaking the hard concepts with simple examples or inducing him / her to think further through critical questioning and assignments.

The teacher also has to reach out the person culturally by accommodating instead of relegating the thinking, habits and lifestyle of the community that the student belongs to. This makes the person highly elevated and self – esteemed. Socially the student has to be recognized as a human being irrespective of his colour, caste, creed, economical position and language. Finally the person‘s emotions have to be weighed and tolerated at all intervals so that the student feels comfortable in the midst of persons of various abilities.

To make the above long-winded discussion into a short and snappy one, there are three words a teacher must remember as ‘mantra’; they are *Beware, *Become and *Befriend. These three words describe the every-day mission of a model teacher in the modern world.

Firstly, the teacher must be aware of the context / background from which the students and teacher hail from; the knowledge of the individual leads to better exercise of kindness, strategies and creation of classroom climate. Along with the above, the happenings in the neighbourhood and the society should also to be looked into, as the general environment does tell upon the growth of the child.

Secondly, there is a need for becoming a new person every day in the context of fast changing world. Every teacher, remember, is a continuous learner; she / he has to update herself / himself with new knowledge through reading and interacting with various fast developing technologies. Empower yourself with new information so that you are able to answer the queries of today’s students with tomorrow’s solutions. Keep yourself as a different teacher personality in your outlook, thinking, approach, behaviour, execution and expression.

Thirdly, education is to tame a person as a human being. The need for humanness is the want of the student and local community. The goal of education is not so much in textual experience but in human interaction, leading to concrete commitment to the society around them. Concrete commitment means seeking of the company of the poor and the simple, the rural and the underprivileged, the slow learners and the special children etc. Raising a clarion call for the life of the voiceless both within and without the classrooms is the basic becoming of a best teacher.

what is your mission today? It is to be a different teacher who can make a positive impact in the society and it must be unique. Do not be one among the thousands but one in the blue. The best teacher is judged by his words and deeds, through his intelligence and emotions, on his outlooks and achievements, with his values and relations in the world. Today’s society which is engulfed with materialism, easy-going, hatred, revenge, greediness, dominance through violence etc certainly poses a challenge for the teaching community. It is going to be an unrelenting task for the future teachers to emerge as new and unique stars with undiminished enthusiasm. This is possible with the guidance of the old and experienced teachers.

We have a committed and affectionate band of faculty along with a small group of administrative staff; no doubt, they will travel with you, Dear prospective teachers, silently and extend their cooperation in making you, the future teachers as a band of persons with knowledge and wisdom, ethics and excellence, and competences and characters.

Wishing you all the best !
Rev. Prof. Dr. D. Thomas Alexander SJ
Secretary & Prof of Education
LCE, Chennai, TN, India.