Article May 6, 1933 Issue

Examinations

LAURA SHERREN MC CLURG

AS examination periods approach, it is not uncommon to hear college students express fear of failure to do creditable work on examinations. Sometimes this fear is caused by a belief in mental inferiority; sometimes by a belief of proneness to nervousness during such testing times; sometimes by a combination of such beliefs with fear that the examiner may be unfair in stating questions or propositions. Examined in the light of Christian Science, all this can be overcome by replacing the false beliefs relating to personality and personal ability with the true understanding of what constitutes knowledge and intelligence, and by realizing that there is no unfairness in the government of divine Principle, which is always impartial and just.

The desire for an education is normal and right. Mrs. Eddy wrote (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, p. 195): "Academics of the right sort are requisite. Observation, invention, study, and original thought are expansive and should promote the growth of mortal mind out of itself, out of all that is mortal." She also ruled that students of the Metaphysical College, Readers, and librarians in The Mother Church Reading Rooms shall be "well educated" (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 246; Church Manual, Art. III, Sect. 6; Art. XXI, Sect. 2). Education is helpful to the fuller awakening of the highest human faculty—reasoning. The underlying ideal of all desire for education is the wish to develop one's talents to the highest point in order to be of greater usefulness. Among the qualities of divine Mind reflected by man are perception, understanding, comprehension; and, from the human standpoint, these qualities must be cultivated and developed.

There is just one intelligence—infinite Mind, God, who at all times is all-knowing; and all that is real is the reflection of this one ever present Mind, the Principle of all creation. Belief in personal, finite, material intelligence is idolatry. It breaks the First Commandment, for it postulates many minds. Pride of intellect is the cause of much disappointment, since it claims to limit ability to mortal mental capacity. Man's power of expression is from God. As the reflection of the all-knowing God, man is always receptive to ideas of the all-governing intelligence "which is never unconscious nor limited" (Science and Health, p. 588). This understanding of uninterrupted intelligence—eternal, unchanging, available to all through the knowledge that man is the reflection of God—releases the human capacities from binding claims of fear and enables thought to rise to otherwise unattainable heights of perception and comprehension.

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