YOUNG GENERATION
Pathshala Teacher Monica Shah - A Role Model for Younger Kids By Nishi Shah and Suryaraj Jain
(This article is taken from https://youngminds.yja.org/from-teaching-pathshala-to-being-a-role-model-for-youngerkids-monica-shah-42f50379670f )
Monica Shah isn’t just an ordinary Board of Trustee member for YJA. She’s a Pathshala teacher, basketball coach, music lover, Bharatnatyam dancer, and so much more. But her biggest passion in life is leading her own children to be positive contributors in society. That’s how she became interested in being the coach for her son’s basketball team, choreographing Bharatnatyam pieces for her daughter, and teaching Jainism to the younger generation.
“[Indians] weren’t as mainstream as we are today.” This made it imperative for her to integrate Indian values into her own life, and a close, supportive extended family has enabled her to bring those values into her children’s lives as well. Growing up, “being vegetarian was foreign” to the people around her, so attending Jain Pathshala in her community was one way of relating to others. Monica Aunty’s childhood involvement in the Jain community shaped much of her life, and she wants to pass that positive Pathshala experience on to younger generations. So alongside training her children in Indian arts such as Bharatnatyam, tabla, and harmonium, Monica Aunty most strongly values instilling Jainism through attending Pathshala. Being a first-generation Indian-American graduate from the University of Michigan with two children born in the U.S., she finds it easy to relate to current students in her Pathshala classes, many of whose parents have immigrated to the U.S. in more recent years. When working with these students, she tries to instill upon them that, “no matter how well-versed you are on a sutra (prayer), how much time you’ve spent practicing, how much you’ve studied, it’s such a complex philosophy, science, [and] religion that it’s important not to get hung up on ‘you’re Jain if you do this’ or don’t do this.” Instead, Monica Aunty emphasizes being Jain by your intentions — your thoughts, words, and actions.
For the past ten years, Monica Aunty has been teaching Pathshala at the Jain Society of Metropolitan Washington (JSMW). Motivated by her son, who was then just two years old, she kick-started a Pathshala class for nursery school students to start providing him and other children with a foundation of Jain principles early on
As the American-born daughter of Indian immigrants who first came to this country in the early 70s, Monica Aunty considers herself to be a true “ABCD.” She reflects on her own upbringing in the 80s when
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With this approach, she has noticed a change in attitude for many of her students, even those who seem less involved. Monica Aunty is particularly proud
