The application of the teachings of Christian Science to pedagogics is a most interesting subject. It is in all respects the most important feature of such education to-day. In cases of abnormal or subnormal children, the operation of Truth is already recognized as radically corrective. Such cases under the care of a practitioner have been restored to normal conditions by metaphysical means alone. Restoration has taken place also where such children were under the daily instruction of teachers so imbued with Christian Science that the healing took place incidentally, without the aid of specific treatment. To cure defectives and so remove from the educational path one of its most troublesome obstructions is indeed a great service to the schools.
To children pronounced entirely normal an understanding of Truth proves of inestimable value in everyday work as well as under the stress of trying circumstances. The majority of young people approach the examination period with concern; many submit to it with positive dread; some emerge from it prostrated. The conviction that God is the loving intelligence everywhere present quiets the disturbed thought, and permits it to work clearly, definitely, and accurately, without fatigue. Such an understanding of God does not defer the realization of His presence until the moment of trial, but instead wisely utilizes the curative thought from the first day of the semester through all preparatory work until the final test of scholarship arrives. Regarded from this vantage ground, an examination is an opportunity to crystallize the labor or the training of months into recognized credit to the student.
Not infrequently parents call for metaphysical treatment for their children to correct habits that lead to failure when the day of reckoning comes. In this way indifference, indolence, procrastination, inaptitude, inaccuracy, and kindred undesirable qualities are early replaced by their opposites, that more nearly express the perfect Mind. The wisdom of such a course is apparent, for any successful attempt to push a delinquent student through the final test with high standing merely confirms in him the dishonest practices so inimical to genuine progress. As Mrs. Eddy says on page 452 of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures," "Right is radical."
