Perhaps at some time you've been asked to teach the youngest class in a Christian Science Sunday School and quickly declined, or accepted only under protest. Several years ago, when assigned this class, I accepted it with many mental reservations. I found the children extremely disorderly and uninterested. Although I had worked successfully as a primary teacher in the public school, I seemed unable to control these Sunday School children. I felt so inadequate that after struggling with the class for many months without making progress I finally resigned.
Eight years later I again accepted the challenge of teaching the youngest class. During this intervening period I had begun to improve my view of man in Science. I now saw the children, at least to some degree, not as little, undisciplined mortals but as complete, mature ideas of divine Mind. Recognizing God's absolute control over all and disciplining my thinking to perceive Spirit's reflections brought peace, order, and a sense of dominion. I was learning to demonstrate Mrs. Eddy's statement, "The divine children are born of law and order, and Truth knows only such." Unity of Good, p. 23
Sometimes taking the youngest classes (which often include two-through four-year-olds) is looked upon as simply a babysitting duty. Nothing could be further from the truth. The little ones need to be helped to resist false suggestions of evil just as surely as do the older children. The temptation to have tantrums, hit, take other children's things, tease, and so forth are problems of as great magnitude for them as drugs, illicit sex, and loneliness are for teen-agers.
