Ever feel that school is a battle between the teachers and you? Or that there are certain subjects you're just not interested in? I've felt that way at times, and not surprisingly, whatever class I'm taking seems to slow down and drag. And that makes it even harder to get something worthwhile out of it.

It wasn't until I was well into my college career, though, that I realized something had to change—and I found that something was me! Sounds backward, doesn't it? After all, I didn't make a particular class boring—the teacher did, right?

I had suffered through a sociology class with one teacher whose method of teaching I found quite boring. My grade was just average—little effort and little results. Another professor seemed stuck twenty years in the past. Nothing he said seemed relevant to today. There were other classes like this coming up that I needed for my degree.

Then one day I came across this statement in Science and Health: "Sin makes its own hell, and goodness its own heaven" (p. 196). These class experiences sure seemed hellish, a waste of time and effort on my part. But this sentence helped me see that what I thought and how I approached the classes had everything to do with my success.

"Could I listen beyond the words spoken?" I asked myself. "Were my opinions about these professors, and my personal likes and dislikes, getting me anywhere? Could I find some good in these classes to turn this experience in a more productive direction?"

There is a word that, when understood, helps us overcome prejudices and negative feelings. It's humility. Humility is the ability to be modest in one's own thought, and to listen to others and most of all to God.

What have God and humility got to do with our studies and the classroom? When the process of education is seen to be one mortal trying to convey information to another mortal, we leave room for all sorts of obstacles to appear that would interfere with our getting the most out of learning opportunities—obstacles such as over-concern with quirks of various personalities, and so on.

Humbly, we need to put aside this false assumption of a mind apart from God, and understand that man is the idea of child of God, the one divine Mind. Divine Mind is the source of intelligence for everyone involved in the learning process. And God doesn't have trouble getting His point across to Himself. Therefore His children, His spiritual, perfect ideas reflecting Him, have ease and clarity in communication. God is divine Life and Truth, and He is vital, powerful, and trustworthy—never boring.

Humility demands of us that we leave behind our own opinions and follow God, Truth. Through humble prayer, we realize that even the most difficult instructor is actually God's loving idea; and we find we can listen with discernment to what is being taught. Then we're really listening, and the information being conveyed is not received as stagnant and stale, but as useful, even inspiring.

This verse from Hymn 291 in the Christian Science Hymnal helped me express more humility:

At a time in our lives when we yearn most for the understanding that comes with maturity and experience, we might feel it's counterproductive to pray to God, "Make me as a little child." But praying this way is not retrogressive. Instead, it impels us forward, enabling us to express the God-given qualities of gentleness, purity, and simplicity. These are childlike qualities inherent in man, and they help us fulfill the demands of studies—and of God—successfully.

The Apostle Paul said, "When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things" (I Cor. 13:11). Growing up, we have opportunities to put away childish knowledge and behavior; but it's never time to put away childlike, spiritual qualities. Strong opinions, rash decisions, and shallow judgments are childish in the most negative sense. Instead, we can go forward with a humble spirit, listening intently to what's being asked of us, showing our spiritual maturity and capacity for good, and following Christ Jesus' example.

When I finally learned this lesson, the sociology class I had dreaded at first turned out to be very interesting. I happily read all the needed material and listened to the professor, who actually had wonderful ideas to impart. This was a three-hour class that met four times a week, and I loved each session. I saw a great love for the subject matter in the professor who I'd felt was stuck in another era. And the next class I took with this man was interesting and challenging as well. The other classes I had not looked forward to unexpectedly opened my thought to the need of helping others. And my grades, reflecting my improved mental outlook in all my classes, were excellent. Humility turned this hellish college experience into a joyous, productive one.