Finding our educational path
A Christian Science perspective: A response to the Monitor Weekly’s cover story about a new trend on educating children.
This week’s cover story highlights a shift toward “unschooling” – allowing children to learn at home in order to let them advance at their own pace. At the heart of this movement, to me, is a question of how to find the right path forward for our children.
For all the effort that goes into guiding a new generation toward a life of purpose, it may be harder still to find a sense of peace about the process.
In my own experience, I struggled with a sense of uncertainty and felt I was missing out on opportunities by making choices about my own education. At one point when I was deciding between colleges, including one that didn’t believe in awarding grades, I found it impossible to compare programs. Mapping out all the possible merits and demerits of each institution didn’t bring me peace. I had to rely on a spiritual sense of things to find answers. For me, this meant listening to God, divine Love, to feel in my heart what was right.
I had to put away my list of pros and cons in order to lean on the leadings of Love – what truly spoke to me. When I did, I felt a calm, strong intuition about which school to attend. A few years later, it became perfectly clear that I had made the best choice for my education.
In cases like this, revelations concerning where to go and what to choose come through spiritual intuitions that steer us in the right direction. They aren’t motivated by fear, worry, or cold calculations. They are clear, calm ideas, inspired by love for God – a deep desire, or prayer, to be guided by God to know and do what’s right.
“When we wait patiently on God and seek Truth righteously, He directs our path,” writes the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, Mary Baker Eddy (“Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” p. 254).
My prayers to know the truth – to wait patiently on God, Spirit – recognized God as my creator, and not only mine, but everyone’s. This meant that anyone finding his or her way had the natural ability to feel the impulse of Spirit, of Love, and through this, choose the best path with confidence.
Christ Jesus illustrated how material sense is not the channel through which we hear God’s guidance when he said to his disciples: “perceive ye not yet, neither understand? have ye your heart yet hardened? Having eyes, see ye not? and having ears, hear ye not?” (Mark 8:17, 18). He demonstrated time and again that we must look beyond the outward sense of things to gain the inspiration of Spirit.
Motivated by the impulse of divine Love – instead of being motivated by fear or worry – we are more readily able to know which direction to take in our lives, including finding a fulfilling learning experience.
Each earnest and humble step to “seek Truth righteously” helps illuminate our path and give us a sense of peace about the right direction to go in.