Years ago in graduate school, we were required to teach a full semester in partnership with a fellow student, each one taking the same class, but in alternate semesters. My partner opted for the first semester. When I began teaching the class after the Christmas break, to my dismay I was teaching to a chaotic classroom. The students were noisy and unruly. Nothing I tried brought any control to the classroom.
For several weeks I was overwhelmed by the prospect of bringing 30 or so little minds under some kind of discipline and order. But through prayer, I gained some perspective. I began to see that there were not actually many minds disrupting the classroom but one mistake attempting to dominate all of us. This was the delusion that there are conflicting personal minds. The truth is, there is only one Mind—God. And everyone's true nature is the reflection of this Mind. Disorder and disrespect are not part of this nature. They belong to the notion of a counterfeit mind, the one error. Something Mrs. Eddy writes in Science and Health broke through my discouragement: "To remove the error producing disorder, you must calm and instruct mortal mind with immortal Truth." Science and Health, p. 415.
I could see that the truth needed to bring calm was the understanding of God as Mind. I reasoned that God is the Mind of every child He creates, including me and everyone in my classroom. I knew that the calmness and order of this Mind were present in all His children. I trusted that my instruction and the students' responses to it were under the one perfect Mind's authority.
