Photo illustrated by RDECOM
A guest post written by Ingrid Peschke, Health blogger, legislative liaison for Christian Science and spirituality in Massachusetts, Christian Science practitioner
Recently, I had an interesting conversation with my fifth-grader’s health teacher. His class was just about to begin the “disease unit” so I sent a letter to school, requesting that the teacher excuse him from these discussions.
As Christian Science parents, my husband and I realize we’re not typical, practicing a spiritual means of healthcare. But we’ve experienced the positive results and we also know we have choices. We’re committed to doing what works and what’s right in any given circumstance. We take seriously the health education of our children, but we see it differently than most. Our view is informed by the premise that our thoughts are of vital importance to our health and that the body can’t call the shots.
In terms of the connection between health and consciousness, the secret is out of the box. Actually, it has been for some time. More and more it seems health professionals are pointing to these connections through clinical studies and observations. I continue to learn about the basis of the power of thought on health, explored from a Christian and scientific basis. Mary Baker Eddy once wrote: “If we understood the control of Mind over body, we should put no faith in material means.”
So how does this apply to public school where health class is mandatory and a unit on disease is part of the curriculum?
Rather than asking for my son to be excused from class without an explanation, I shared a little bit about Christian Science in my letter to the teacher. Here’s an excerpt:
As a family, we’ve experienced the great benefits of practicing this spiritual and scientific means of healthcare, and we would always choose the best form of care for our children. Unlike what some may think, the church does not prohibit medical care.
The teacher called me right after class. She sounded open-minded. “I understand why you don’t want him to participate in the unit on disease,” she said.
She had students arriving soon, but had a few minutes to talk. Where to begin? I figured, She teaches health . . . she must know there are a lot of options out there for people who want alternative methods to treat disease. When I mentioned the topic of health and its relationship to thought and prayer, she told me about her grandmother who had just had a stroke and her faith was pulling her through. Her doctors noticed the difference.
After our conversation, the little piece of me that sometimes feels misunderstood disappeared.
Link to Ingrid Peschke’s blog
About the author
So glad to read this correspondence to a teacher. By reading this at our membership meeting, I think it will be a great benefit to parents who might be looking for some appropriate wording on this issue.
Thank you so much for this excellent article that will be so valuable to share with others at church and in our community.
Over the years our children were in public schools I, too, had good opportunities to show respect for teachers and the curriculum, as well as for our children and our family’s Christian practice which included caring for our health spiritually. In nearly every case teachers were grateful to be alerted to a different viewpoint, and “bent over backwards” to support what we as parents saw as best for our children’s health education. On one or two occasions I even felt the impulse to bolster the teachers’ confidence about their conscientious response to our requests. Hats off to the considerate openmindedness and responsiveness of the teachers in my town.