# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1944_S658
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

. dreds of congregations will start part-time schools during thi

74 ELEMENTARY EDUCATION

practical experience to calculate the minimum of class periods re
quired per annum to ensure the educand’s proficiency in arithm
and other branches of knowledge. Considering the fact that san
tification is a process and that this process is often disturbed
negative or detrimental factors in the child’s environment, it shoul
be the aim of every congregation to provide a maximum of hou
for the religious instruction of the children committed to its care;
In the Sunday school the average child receives less than thirt
hours of religious instruction per annum, barely enough to sustaiz
his spiritual life. Where there is no school, more time can ‘bi
procured for religious instruction by introducing one or more x
the part-time agencies. A well-ordered Saturday school
produce at least as good results as the Sunday school. A we
ordered summer or vacation Bible school makes a valuable
tribution to the child’s religious life and has missionary possibilitiés
The same holds true of released-time, or weekday, religious -
struction. mo
During the past three years the number of part-time agencies
(Saturday school, summer school, weekday religious instruction),
throughout Synod increased by 273, and the enrollment increas
by 4,563, Synod now has 2,060 part-time agencies with an enroll;
ment of 53,123. These figures are disheartening, especially sin
many of the schools must be classified as confirmation classes and
since the data show that so little has been done to expand our’
system of part-time agencies. The Sunday school is popular, these.
other part-time agencies are not. The question is, How can. we
make them popular? How can we arouse our congregations tg
a realization that more time must be devoted to religious instru
tion and that for this reason more instructional agencies must.
brought into being? Any endeavor to establish more education:
agencies will indeed entail additional labor on those pastors who
are already overburdened. But in most cases it should be possib
to interest laymen and women and train them for participatio
in this work. It is the earnest hope of the Board of Christ ;
Education that the movement for more part-time agencies wills
gain momentum in the present and near future and that hun

next triennium. The Board of Christian Education has outline
a two-year graded course for part-time agencies in three uni
two units for weekday religious instruction and one unit for sum:
mer schools. Teachers’ guides and worksheets for three cour.
have already appeared. A number of courses will be publish
during the current year and hereafter, until all units have be
completed. The courses now available may be used in any of thi
three part-time agencies enumerated above.

rom EN RTO AN