"Science is absolute and final," we read on page 99 of "Miscellaneous Writings" by Mary Baker Eddy. She continues, "It is revolutionary in its very nature; for it upsets all that is not upright." Education looked at in the light of Science—absolute Science—is one of the areas in which many ideas which seem at first revolutionary are upsetting the old beliefs of mankind.
The root of the word "education" is from the Latin, educere, meaning to lead forth. It implies a bringing to light of that which is innate, of that which already exists. Yet in human experience what a different view is presented! Education has largely become a pouring-in process based on the assumption that man begins as a helpless infant, grows through phases of childhood, adolescence, maturity, age, eventually to reach an end in death. Each phase of mankind's growth has been studied and analyzed, and specific characteristics and limitations have been placed upon each of these periods. Moreover, while these general time divisions are accepted and adhered to in the educative process, many people also believe that each individual has a private mind which came to him at birth and that, depending upon heredity and various other factors, the individual's mind may turn out to be exceptionally intelligent, average, mediocre, or subnormal.
Happily, Science is upsetting all these mortal, limited views and replacing them with the right concept of education; that is, a drawing forth of that which already is true of man as God knows him. Thus Science is presenting to us a new idea of pedagogy. By definition Christian Science tells us in part that man is "that which has no separate mind from God," and also that "he is the compound idea of God, including all right ideas" (Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mrs. Eddy, p. 475). These absolute facts deny the human belief of a mind in a brain and also deny the necessity of ideas being added to man, who, as God's spiritual likeness, already includes all right ideas.
Further absolute facts regarding the Mind which created man are that this Mind is omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence. Now let us apply some of these revolutionary ideas concerning Mind and its idea to the human realm where the educative process seems to take place. They are revolutionary only if we think of them in connection with mortals, but Christian Science is teaching us to correct misconceptions of God and man with the Christly understanding of perfect God and perfect man as the basis of all our reasoning. We are enabled to see infancy, childhood, adolescence, maturity, and old age as false beliefs, not facts, about man and thus to free ourselves and others from the limitations inherent in these beliefs. Thus "too early" or "too late" can be dismissed from our experience, concerning ourselves either as teachers or as students.
Are we afraid to call upon omniscience, omnipresence, omnipotence for help, perhaps from a false theological reverence which needs upsetting? Why? These great verities of being do not apply to a mortal, to be sure, but to Mind, divine Mind. This Mind has to have a witness, and that witness is man. Omniscience would have to be expressed in effortless knowing and must certainly be characterized by an infinite flow of right ideas, expressing originality, spontaneity, inspiration. Omniscience could not know indecision or doubt in any circumstance, because it is always conscious of its own wisdom.
Omnipresence is expressed by man in the consciousness of ideas appearing in infinite supply, always at hand—never absent, never forgotten. When we, as Mind's reflection, call on omnipotence, we find that the ability to carry out an idea is present with the idea. There is no delay, inaction, postponement, or obstruction, and an understanding of the great facts of God's being expresses itself in our life, as it did in Jesus' life, and gives us, as it gave him, the ability to do our work "in the power of the Spirit" (Luke 4:14). A willingness to let go the limitations of age and educational processes must account for the ability of the child Jesus in the temple "sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions." We read (Luke 2:47), "All that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers."
If we accept the fact that education is a drawing forth of that which already is, then in Christian Science, education really begins from the moment that we apprehend about ourselves or others that true education witnesses to the eternal Christ, man's true selfhood, which is coming to light. Absolutely speaking, this perfect selfhood needs no cultivation or improvement, but we can be helped immeasurably in what we call our human educational experience by a correct understanding of what is actually taking place. We shall cease to see ourself or others as mortals, developing according to so-called periods of time, subject to limitations of all sorts, prevented perhaps by human circumstances from receiving the training we longed for. We shall learn to accept the glorious opportunity of proving the inspiration man's true selfhood includes.
The freedom of the education which Christian Science offers might be described by the beautiful Bible words (II Sam. 22:20), "He brought me forth also into a large place: he delivered me, because he delighted in me." Through Science we shall behold the man of God's creating, of whom Science and Health tells us (p. 258), "God expresses in man the infinite idea forever developing itself, broadening and rising higher and higher from a boundless basis."
