Sunday School teachers faced with the challenge of engaging the migratory attention of restless children have sometimes resorted to conventional teaching aids to help arouse student interest. Unfortunately, one common result is that the aids themselves can become the center of attention rather than the truth they were meant to bring out. But what the Christian Science Sunday School teacher is asked to teach has a fundamental attractiveness of its own that is much stronger than anything external aids could supply. In the Manual of The Mother Church, Mrs. Eddy writes: "The Sabbath School children shall be taught the Scriptures, and they shall be instructed according to their understanding or ability to grasp the simpler meanings of the divine Principle that they are taught."Man., Art. XX, Sect. 2.
The Scriptures contain what all people yearn to experience and understand, whether they believe it or not: the truth of God and man. People innately long to know who they are, why they exist, and where they are going. They seek to know their identity, purpose, and destiny. If they don't respond to this desire, they can slide into aimless routines. What is revealed through the Scriptures, with unfolding clarity, is the true nature of man as God created him, God's purpose for man, and the way of salvation through which that purpose is fulfilled. Anything divorced from these spiritual truths falls short of answering the pupils' need for a true sense of direction. The Scriptures, as Christian Science illumines them, are filled with what these youngsters are seeking, even if the pupils don't realize just how relevant the Bible's teachings are to their deepest inner needs. Besides helping them to deal with interpersonal and school challenges, the Bible can bring healing.
One night an eleven-year-old boy suddenly became so ill that his suffering was apparent to his brothers and parents. Having faithfully attended Christian Science Sunday School for several years, he knew well God's healing power as exhibited by Christ Jesus and other individuals mentioned in the Bible. He went with his mother into another room where they reviewed many of Jesus' healings and other examples of God's authority that he had learned about in Sunday School and from the weekly Bible Lessons in the Christian Science Quarterly.
