The Teacher's Responsibility
Those who have received the rich blessings of Christian Science in their daily living are grateful that provision is made in the Manual of The Mother Church by Mary Baker Eddy for the spiritual education of children. The consecrated Christian Scientist who is appointed to serve in the Sunday School accepts his work not only as a privilege, but also as a responsibility. He feels a keen interest in the pupils and endeavors in each case to discern the particular need.
A class may be made up of pupils in various states and stages of spiritual progress. There may be one who learns the letter of the lessons readily but needs to be shown how to apply the lessons in his daily activities, and the alert teacher watches for every opportunity to help this one to make the teaching practical. There may be another who has had little if any previous knowledge of Christian Science, and the teacher finds it a joy to show this one that he can begin at once to experience the great blessings which God has bestowed upon His children if he will be faithful in his study and will apply what he learns.
Whatever a child may seem to lack by reason of home training, parental example, environment, or in any other way, the teacher has every reason to know that the Sunday School lessons are equal to the need, and it becomes his responsibility to awaken the spiritual sense of the child and help him to become an active Christian Scientist.
There are times when a teacher is faced with a situation where a pupil seems not to respond to the teacher's best efforts, and one may be tempted to believe that the child does not belong in his class, but that he should be moved along to another one. Experience has shown, however, that nothing is gained by transferring a pupil again and again to a different class. It has been found that the need is not always for a change of teacher or a change of class. More often than not the need is simply to awaken the spiritual sense of the pupil. This may require faithful and persistent work on the part of the teacher, but when it has been accomplished, both teacher and pupil are blessed.
The following experience comes from a teacher in the Sunday School of a branch church and illustrates the effectiveness of prayer and patience in such cases:
"A few years ago I was asked to take a class of girls in the Sunday School of a branch church. It was my first call to teach, and I was very grateful for this privilege. Among the girls in the class to which I was assigned was one who seemed to present a problem. She felt she did not like certain of her classmates. She was unkind and sarcastic, and her conduct was sullen and distracting to other pupils. Also she rarely did any preparatory work.
"As time went on and there was no change in the child's thought, I felt it difficult to be patient and decided to ask that she be transferred to another class. But before I had an opportunity to do this there came a day when classes were being changed throughout the Sunday School, and this girl was among those to be transferred. However, she defiantly refused to go, stating that she wanted to stay in my class. Then I was awakened to the fact that this problem was mine to handle and not one to be passed on to another.
"In our textbook. 'Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,' Mrs. Eddy writes (p. 236), 'Jesus loved little children because of their freedom from wrong and their receptiveness of right.' Each day as I studied in preparation for the Sunday School class I prayed that I might so improve my work that it would help This one to express true childlikeness and receptivity to right. I maintained that God's child does reflect love and kindliness and knew also that through patience, tolerance, and spiritual understanding these Godlike qualities could be brought to light.
"Finally the pupil began to show an interest in the lessons and to participate in the discussions. She became helpful and kindly towards others and more often came to class with her lesson prepared. At one time she made a special study of Mrs. Eddy's poem 'Mother's Evening Prayer' from the Christian Science Hymnal (No. 227), which the class had been asked to do. I was grateful for this spiritual progress and looked forward to even more advancement Spiritward for this pupil.
By the time she had been in the class several years she had become a charming girl, and instead of bringing sullenness and discord to the class, she came each Sunday with great joy.
"Then there came another day for transfers, and this pupil once again was asked to move into an older class. This time she graciously co-operated in moving to her new class. Before leaving for college, she made application for membership in The Mother Church so that she might be eligible for active work in the Christian Science Organization of the college."
