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JAINA CONVENTION 2017
Jain center of southern California
The religious material should be in simple American English which will allow them to effectively apply Jain principles and practices in their everyday lives. The Jain children have grown up in American culture where: • Both men and women are treated equally
Proper explanation is needed with reasons and must appeal to our common sense No magic or blind faith is accepted and hence self-efforts and self-initiatives are valued Humanitarian services and environmental protection take priority over traditional tem ple/ sthanak rituals
All other religions and their cultures which are positive in nature treated properly and equally respected Hence the committee has a very difficult task to compromise certain traditional practices without the help from Jain Acharya of India in the preparation of American Pathshala Education Material. Since the material is going to be used by American children, the committee has compromised several rituals and traditions which are place and time dependent. However, under no circumstances, the basic Jain principles are compromised. To date the committee has published 9 Pathshala books and 5 reference books for our children, youths and professionals. There are more than 20 committee members performing various task of preparing, printing and distributing the material. As per our recent survey, there are about 4000 students use these Jaina Education Material. These Pathshalas have about 500 teachers and other staff. Pathshala days are the days when attendance in the Temples are the highest. These 4,000 students ranging from 4 to 18 years old attend Jain Pathshala classes in their centers mostly on Sundays.
In many cases, the parents of the kids in the Pathshala are themselves the teachers and are known to the kids first as uncles or aunties. There are about 500 adults providing volunteer service as teachers and other help. These teachers are aided by a very valuable resource JAINA Education Committee has produced.
