Study Class Corner

Study Class Vision and Values

With the blessings of Shashan Dev and Sarawati devi, the Jain study class is an important knowledge house for our children living in the United States. It has been thirty years since the Jain study class began under the vision and guidance of Gururji and his dedicated team of 30 teachers and volunteers. Over the years the study class has grown exponentially and offers classes to students from different age groups.

The Jain study class imparts knowledge to around 150 students on a bi-weekly basis. Every study class there are about 110 plus students from 3 years onwards to high school seniors and some college students too. We also conduct an adult class for parents who are interested in learning more about Jainism.

We are fortunate to have years of services rendered by many teachers and volunteers who have contributed in the advancement of the study class. We are also making progress in involving and expanding the team of teachers with help of young adults.

Our goal at the Jain study class is to educate our students on the importance of being a Jain and learning the values of Jaininsm. To support our objective, we use the resources from the JAINA. Our active participation in JAINA organization’s educational meetings & seminars has kept us updated on all the new publications and methods of teaching. We have incorporated all JAINA published books into our class curriculum.

The Jain study class takes pride in supporting itself!!! We have a monthly sponsorship and a Lifetime sponsorship program. As of April 2012, we have about 119 families for the Life time sponsorship of $ 1,001 each. We take this as an honor and thank all the members who have supported us and hope many more to join in the future.

With the help of parents, we were able to raise enough funds to have stage curtains and partitions for the classrooms. This has definitely helped our students especially during study class and the annual day program. We do appreciate the sponsorship by parents for trophies during the annual day program and essay prizes.

Motivating initiatives of our class activity include…….

• Jain Buck Reward Program

• Students’ Annual Day Stage Program

• Stuti & Sutra Recital Program

• Essay Competition

• Prizes to students

• Representation in local Inter Faith Program

• Sharing of student experiences on their visit to India.

At the Jain study class we are always striving for excellence but we do have challenges to overcome especially moving forward with in this digital world. Computer based teachings; class sizes, introducing new resources in teaching, adaptating teachings to the current world to sustain student interest, teachers training from time to time and inculcating basic discipline on timeliness and volunteering at the temple. Our Study Class bulletin board at the temple reflects our achievements along with our continuous efforts to stay focused in respect to future challenges.

From the inception of study class till today we have always been open to ideas and tried to include them towards the progress of our study class. It is a matter of great pride and honor for all of us to see the success we have made so far but we still have miles and miles to go and many routes still to change before we reach the perfect destination!!!!

As Oliver Wendell Homes quotes “the great thing in the world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving”. The goal of our study class is to ensure that we keep absorbing newer ideas that will work for the progress of our students as they are our future!!!