Jain Digest 1998 04

Author(s): Federation of JAINA
Publisher: USA Federation of JAINA

Page 17

Report from... The First Quadrennial JAINA Pathshala Teachers/Educators Conference
beld May 23-24, 1998, # Boston, MA
The first JAINA Pathshala Teachers/Educators Conference (JPTC) was hosted by the Jain Center of Greater Boston
(JCGB), in conjunction with the JAINA Education Committee, on May 22-24, 1998. Boston was the place to be
this past Memorial Day weekend. It brought together Pathshala teachers and educators from all over the USA and Canada. A total of 81 teachers/educators attended this conference. The feeling from everyone during departure was that, this type of grass root level conference was long needed.
The main objective of this conference was to collectively address all crucial issues related to Jain education in USA/Canada and to ensure that our present youth and future Jain generations receive a sound understanding of the Jain philosophy with an equal emphasis on practice of Jainism. This brought us to three initial goals -
To develop a common curriculum for all Jain Centers and home based teaching To plan on what new material needs to be developed, how it will be developed and disseminated To better understand the efforts, challenges and success of each of the Pathshalas and to support each other.
The level of attendance and enthusiastic participation by many Jain Centers and JAINA leaders reflected the anticipation of such a conference. When some of the sessions began their discussions with chanting of the Namokar Mantra, it showed how much the participants were determined to stay united and to make this conference productive.
The following centers participated in the conference (brackets indicate the number of people who attended):
Los Angeles (11) Miami (1) Detroit (1) Columbus (1) Houston (2) Buffalo (1)
Phoenix (2) Chicago (7) Northern New Jersey (2) Cleveland (1) Dallas (2)
Northern California (2) Boston (16) Southern New Jersey 2 Huntington Valley, PA (1) North Carolina (2)
Connecticut (5) Washington, DC (8) New York (1) Pittsburgh (1) Toronto (12)
The conference started on Friday evening by welcoming the attendees and giving them their registration package, which included the conference agenda and all curriculum outlines. Saturday morning the conference directors Dr. Prem Gada, Pankaj Shah, and Yogendra Jain got to work and started with laying out the objectives of the conference along with the ingredients to make it successful. What followed was two days of being together, sharing our experiences, much laughter as well as a lot of serious discussion.
Pathshala as well.
This sharing helped attendees realize that the challenges they face are common across all centers and that only through team work and peer support we can resolve many of the issues. The most common issue, which was highlighted, was the challenge to maximize the learning experience given barely 20-40 hours of formal education per year.
All Pathshalas-Sharing Challenges/Fun Experiences
After the welcoming remarks, the stage was turned over to all represented Jain Centers who gave a presentation on unique methodology / techniques that they have incorporated in their teaching and a summary of their curriculum along with specifics on their student count, classes held, total teachers, volunteers, etc. Each center had their own share of challenges as well as new ideas on how they attracted students to Pathshala, how they were working with parents for serious commitment to Pathshala, their unique approaches to teaching - via scientific methods, audio cassettes, simplified language, extracurricular activities and rewards for the students. Other centers mentioned teamwork amongst teachers, support from their Jain center committee, minimal politics, more reasoning and understanding of our culture and religion and less memorization as effective methods for a successful and smooth
"I am tremedously indebted to all of you for giving me the wonderful opportunity to refocus my teaching commitments and meet my fellow educators.
JAIN DIGEST SUMMER 1998/15
Jain Education Intemational