# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1944_S503
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

502 Report of Board for Higher Education

IV. FACULTIES

The results of a comprehensive survey of the faculties for the y
1941-42 in Synod’s ten preparatory and two teacher-training sch
may be summarized as follows:

A. Composition and Character

1. Every school has a faculty of ample size. An average of oné'
instructor is provided for every ten to eleven students. The maxis
mum ratio of instructors to students is 1 to 14.5 (River Forest) ‘an
the minimum is 1 to 5.5 (Portland).

2. Of a total of 94 faculty members, 89 per cent are designated as
“professors” and 11 per cent as “instructors” or “assistants”. ‘Thre
schools (Fort Wayne, St. Paul, Edmonton) have only. “professérs”,

3. The average age of all of the 94 faculty members is 47 years,
In individual schools the average varies from 39 years (Bronxville):

to 56 years (St. Paul). . ve

4. On the average the 94 faculty members have served 15 years in’
their present school. In individual schools the length of service varie
from an average of 9 years (Austin) to 21 years (St. Paul).

5. In the ten preparatory schools 87 per cent of alli teachers ar

, graduates of a theological seminary. In the two normal schools th
percentage is 42. Synod expects regular professors to be theological
trained and to have five years of experience in the ministry. Althoug
fundamentally sound, these requirements do create, in many instanc¢
the serious difficulty that men past thirty and with families have bee
called into professorships for which they could not be adequately *
prepared either by sufficient knowledge of their prospective teachi
fields or by professional pedagogical skill and outlook. Trained te
be preachers, they remain preachers in spirit and practice and can
become acceptably equipped teachers only by laboriously . taking
courses in universities after assuming professorial Tesponsibilities
Partly because of this, membership in professional educational asso
ciations averages less than one membership for every two men; th
production of scholarly writings, sorely needed in our Church,::
almost completely absent except to some extent in the field of religion
and the quality of teaching, ‘in more than a few cases, is less than
Synod should reasonably expect. :
Despite these difficulties, it is most commendable that 52 per. cen
of all faculty members had masters’ degrees in 1940, and 7 per cent

held doctorates in 1940... ,

6. In nearly all schools some teachers engage in active preaching
—some regularly, some as vacancy pastors, others as assistant pastors
and a few have complete charge of congregations. A, few .teacher
conduct night classes elsewhere, and a few engage in activities wholly
unrelated to their vocation. -In certain instances, outside activity
consumes time and energy which properly belong to the institution.

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