Breakfast was over, and Ted had gone to school. His father, disturbed by his son's report card, asked, "How can we help Ted to do better?"

His mother answered, "I've called his teacher for an appointment next week to talk about it. She says Ted is an underachiever —someone who has ability, but doesn't do his work or even seem to try."

The term "underachievement" is often used in educational circles today. Funds are expended to study its possible cures. Yet spiritual truth alone, with no dependence on psychological factors, can reverse underachievement. When this truth—presented by Christ Jesus and unfolded today in Christian Science—is understood and practiced, it can lead to productive school years, to the ability to establish and achieve worthwhile goals through self-discipline. Yet the real achievement so gained, the increased consciousness of one's true worth, is much greater than good grades or satisfactory academic performance.

To understand how the application of Christian Science can accomplish this, we need to understand some basic facts of God and man. In Science and Health Mrs. Eddy writes, "God is incorporeal, divine, supreme, infinite Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love." ^{Science and Health, p. 465;} God created man in His own image, therefore man is necessarily spiritual, never material. Because the all-knowing Mind directs its ideas, man is perfectly directed. Because irradiant Soul is the only consciousness, man cannot experience the darkness of confusion or discouragement. Since infinite Spirit is creative Mind, the likeness of Spirit continually expresses that Mind.

These facts of spiritual man can be brought out in our daily lives. An awareness of them enables parents to help their children demonstrate their full capabilities. But parents can't just declare, "Johnny is God's responsibility," and then do nothing more. Instead, the parent needs to pray diligently for a right understanding and application of these spiritual facts both for his children and for himself. The acknowledgment of spiritual truth helps parents detect and rebuke such materialistic traits as stubbornness, apathy, and moodiness. They can realize that because such traits are not spiritual, they are no part of man's real being.

If false traits seem present, we can replace them in our own thought with the spiritual identification of man, which reveals God's true child. Through the affirmation of spiritual truths we can reverse false traits and thereby see stubbornness replaced with receptivity to right direction, apathy with normal activity, moodiness with joy—every negative trait with the real qualities that belong to God's spiritual child. And we can refuse to believe any evidence that would contradict man's spiritual perfection.

In her conference with Ted's teacher, his mother discovered he was about to fail history. His low grade was attributed entirely to his lack of application, his failure to do assignments or even to study.

When Ted finally saw the seriousness of the situation, he willingly applied the spiritual truths he had learned in the Christian Science Sunday School to help correct himself. The Golden Text from the Lesson-Sermon in the Christian Science Quarterly became the topic of discussion at breakfast each morning. This discussion set the whole family's thought on spiritual things. It helped establish in each one's thought the true identity of all. Sometimes Ted used a hymn to help him rout a tendency to procrastinate: "Make haste, O man, to do/Whatever must be done." ^{Christian Science Hymnal, No. 183;} Sometimes he willingly sacrificed an afternoon ball game to persevere in his homework.

Ted's parents found that they needed to give up a tendency toward domination. They were tempted to say, "You can't go to scout meeting if you don't..." or, "I expect your paper to be finished by dinner." But they realized that usually such statements expressed human will and fear rather than divinely reflected wisdom.

They saw that human will can be expressed in many forms, such as nagging or excessive criticizing by parents, or as a form of resistance, dawdling, or forgetfulness on the part of children. Each such trait was rebuked and so spiritually corrected. Their realization that human will had power neither to harmonize nor disturb their family life because they were all governed by the divine will helped send Ted to school calm in the morning. It brought peace to their dinner hour.

The application of spiritual truths brought its reward. Ted raised his grade from D to B. But even more important to him was that he saw he had the ability to progress. He said, "Next time I'll try for an A." Ted's parents saw that his spiritual individuality consisted wholly of Godlike qualities. They saw that these always relate to highest achievement.

Science and Health assures us, "Know thyself, and God will supply the wisdom and the occasion for a victory over evil." ^{Science and Health, p. 571;} Parents who know both themselves and their children spiritually— and stick to this truth of spiritual individuality—find success. Such parents express tender encouragement toward their children. They are able to overcome the temptation to blurt out disappointment over a report card. Their steadfast trust in God to supply "the wisdom and the occasion" eliminates the anxiety that would create tension between them and their child. With tenderness and quietness pervading the home atmosphere, a child becomes receptive to the truths applied to correct the lies of underachievement.

The Bible tells us the qualities of wisdom we can express in demonstrating man's true identity: "The wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy." ^{James 3:17.}

Each of us is ever an unlimited child of God. We can prove this now. Tact and tenderness, obedience and application, willingness not willfulness—these forces for good help us bring out this fact: There are no underachievers when man's spiritual identity is acknowledged and claimed.