Article January 15, 1955 Issue

Memorizing First Lessons

Sometimes a teacher questions whether or not the pupils should be expected to commit to memory the passages designated in the Manual of The Mother Church by Mary Baker Eddy as their first lessons— namely: the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer with its spiritual interpretation given on pages 16 and 17 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy, and the Beatitudes. (See Sect. 3 of Art. XX.) No one questions whether one should become letter-perfect in memorizing the Lord's Prayer, and it is generally felt that the other portions of the first lessons should be so learned. These are basic lessons in divine law, and when committed to memory, they are readily available throughout one's entire human experience as a standard for thought and action. And their significance and efficacy continue to unfold with application.

The following accounts show how several teachers have helped their pupils to learn the first lessons. One teacher writes:

"In the ten months that I had been teaching I gained the confidence of the seven and eight-year-old boys in my class, and through personal visits, telephone calls, and an occasional brief note, I was enjoying the co-operation of the parents. All seemed to be going well until I awoke to the fact that the boys could not repeat more than a few disconnected portions of the Ten Commandments. I had been teaching these lessons by explanation, parables, and illustrations but had been reluctant to request the children to learn them verbatim because at their age I myself had found it difficult to do this. But when in my study I came upon the passage in the fifth chapter of Deuteronomy which reads, 'Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments which I speak in your ears this day, that ye may learn them, and keep, and do them,' I saw clearly that the learning and keeping would naturally precede the doing of the law.

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