Progress for every student
In my first two years as a schoolteacher, I became aware of how valuable prayer is in the activity of a classroom. I don’t mean formal words spoken out loud, which are sometimes the subject of controversy in schools and are often equated with “real” prayer.
Through my study of Christian Science, I’ve learned that prayer is the humble knowing and affirmation of God’s presence and our gratitude for it. And this can be freely practiced in our experience, at any time. In Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy tells us: “Thoughts unspoken are not unknown to the divine Mind. Desire is prayer; and no loss can occur from trusting God with our desires, that they may be moulded and exalted before they take form in words and in deeds” (p. 1 ).
I knew as I began my first year of teaching that this kind of spiritual desire and trust in God would lead and heal in every situation.
During that year as a new classroom teacher, I was presented with files on each student. These files contained background information, including past academic performance, as well as diagnostic projections about each student’s future performance and perceived ability to succeed in school. I looked at the first file and realized the limiting perspective given about each student.
Immediately I realized that some of the analysis was well-meaning, but I also felt repelled by the predictions that I saw being assigned to these eight-year-old children. So I took in the pertinent information I needed for each child (family names, contact information, etc.), but closed each file without examining the analytical diagnostic material. I knew that I would be doing more good as their teacher by actively recognizing each child’s pure spiritual nature and abilities (something that the master teacher, Jesus, surely did relative to his disciples) instead of poring over restrictive and limiting projections. I felt certain that the classroom would be a place to resolve any possible difficulty and to experience the activity of divine Love.
During the year, children would sometimes voice negative, limiting thoughts about a particular student. Whenever this behavior occurred, I emphasized to my students the importance of being kind to one another, and that included thinking kind thoughts about each other. Then I silently prayed to know only the infinite ideas of God, and each student’s real, spiritual inheritance.
I felt certain that the classroom would be a place to experience the activity of divine Love.
Near the end of the year, everyone in the grade level I was teaching took standardized testing in math. I heard negative comments from teachers who knew the student in my class who was occasionally teased about his abilities. The other teachers talked about his likelihood for poor performance in such testing. Although I didn’t pray specifically for the child, I prayerfully addressed my own thought, continually denying the restrictions placed on this student and affirming the unlimited good that every child rightly inherited from God, who is divine Mind. After the testing was completed, that dear child was one of the top three performing students in my classroom and was included in a high percentile for the school.
A lovely blessing of that first year of teaching was the ongoing appreciation expressed by so many students. Several even came to my house in the summer for backyard picnics. I saw how so many of these students were naturally receptive to knowing their true, spiritual identities. How grateful I was that year for humble, silent prayer!
Halfway into my second year of teaching, very different challenges appeared. Lunch money and some belongings started disappearing. I recognized this behavior, stealing, as an imposition on the children and on their innate innocence as God’s spiritual ideas. My favorite beatitude from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount was foremost in my prayer: “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8 ).
In the prayerful consideration of all the children in my classroom, I prayed to know and see everyone as genuinely “pure in heart,” impelled by the love of God every moment of our school days shared together. I was actively knowing that the purity of each child could never be threatened or contaminated by mortal, selfish impulses—impulses that would oppose the purity of God’s spiritual creation.
Mrs. Eddy wrote a short essay on “Love” that I’d cherished from my childhood. In it she says: “Love is not something put upon a shelf, to be taken down on rare occasions with sugar-tongs and laid on a rose-leaf. I make strong demands on love, call for active witnesses to prove it …” (Miscellaneous Writings 1883–1896, p. 250 ). In my prayer I realized I would be that “active witness” within my classroom, witnessing divine Love’s activity and power at all times.
Later in that same paragraph, Mrs. Eddy’s words describe acts of selfless kindness “done in secret,” even referring to “little feet tripping along the sidewalk.” This, of course, called to my thought the children as being actual manifestations of Love’s activity and infinite power. Very soon one child privately shared with me sadness about taking items from other students. I shared with him the fact that he was purely honest and purely loving, and that all children could express only honesty and purity. The next day some lunch money disappeared, then reappeared. Nothing else was taken following that instance. Some hair clips and a bracelet were also returned.
My joy in witnessing the change in this school situation impelled me to continue serving as a Sunday School teacher in my Christian Science branch church. There I could joyfully share out loud with students how we can pray in all situations.
In thinking about our schools and our children, we can actively pray to know the unassailable purity and security held within God’s infinite spiritual creation. As we challenge anything that would suggest otherwise, we can more clearly recognize our schools and our classrooms as in divine Love’s keeping.
