in her Church Manual.
Under
that same section, titled "Subject for Lessons," we find the
following:
"The next lessons consist of such questions and answers
as are adapted
to a juvenile class, and may be found in the Christian
Science Quarterly
Lessons, read in Church services."
This is good advice for teaching
young people, even if you are not
a church member desiring to obey
the Manual. Using the question
and answer method, both student and
teacher doing the asking and
answering, is a good way to engage the
mind of your pupils. This
requires some preparation, though. You can
use the Lesson Sermon
of the week, or you can study up on a topic
of interest to your
children or pupils.
One of my most favorite Sunday
School teachers used to come
each week with a fresh topic of interest.
After going through
a weekly routine of asking if any of us teenagers
had any questions
or problems of our own to discuss, he would ask
the class a question
that usually got our attention. I would think
how wonderful it was
that he wasn't going to make us read what I often
considered as a
teen a "boring lesson" from the Quarterly. And, yet,
at some point
in the discussion, he would bring up citations from
that week's lesson
in order to prove a point. His grasp of the lesson
was so deep, he was
able to recall some statement from the Quarterly lesson,
and weave it
into our discussion on some topic seemingly unrelated
to the "official"
lesson of the week. He was so tricky! But, he taught
me the value of
solid preparation and coming up with attention-grabbing
topics that
would engage us at our level of interest. He showed how
the Bible
and our textbook had guidance for just about any problem
in life that
we might encounter. No wonder he had become a Journal-listed
Christian Science practitioner, teacher, and lecturer!
I learned that
the Quarterly Bible lessons can be a ready source for any
question,
if one has studied it so deeply its ideas are part of you. Over
time,
however, it became my habit as a Sunday School teacher to use a
variety
of approaches. Sometimes, I taught from the Bible lesson; other
times
I did research on a particular topic of interest to my class.
My
favorite Sunday School teacher referred to above, encouraged our
class
to do a continuing study of the Bible and the writings
of Mrs. Eddy, by
reading five pages every day from each. Within
a year we would
finish the Bible all the way through, plus Science
and Health and Prose
Works. I did finish Mrs. Eddy's writings
at that time, but got bogged
down in the Bible, finishing only the
New Testament and about the
first half of the Old. But that
is more than most CS teens have done,
because rarely are they asked.
Try it! You get so much more out of
studying the textbook
straight through, rather than just sticking to the
Quarterly Bible
Lesson all the time.
This page is where I will be posting links
to lessons on topics outside
the subject of the
Ten Commandments,
the
Beatitudes, and the
Lord's
Prayer. Most will be based
other Bible themes. I hope these will be
helpful for others
who need background material or sample questions to
Christian
Science periodicals, are written by my mother, and will show
how Christian
Science was used by our family in the early years of our
experience
in this religion. They include simple ideas your children or
