# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1947_S153
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

SEMINARIES AND COLLEGES 153°

which are motivated by this objective would require some type of
four-year college course culminating in a Bachelor of Arts degree
as a prerequisite of a three-year professional program leading to
a Bachelor of Divinity degree. They would also require that
regional accreditation of the college work and national accreditation
of the Seminary be achieved. It is pointed out that difficulties en-
countered by our graduates when they attempt registration for
advanced standing in secular institutions, particularly at the
graduate level, would disappear if the mechanics of Synod’s system
of education were adjusted in this way and that, as a result of
such adjustment, transfer of credit to secular institutions would
become only a matter of routine.

B. The same considerations of conformity to the American
pattern are basic to a second group of suggestions. These propose
adjustments in the high school program at the Preparatory Colleges.
It is felt that if four college years were made available, all neces-
sary instruction in Biblical languages could be removed from the
high school program and concentrated in the college offerings.
Students transferring from public high schools to Synod’s ‘system
would no longer be required to spend additional time adjust-
ing their credits, particularly in languages, to the synodical
requirements. ‘

C. The special needs highlighted by the plight of some war-
time chaplains who desired to enter the service of the regular
armed forces have also been urged upon the Church as a reason
for adopting the standard four-year college-three-year seminary
pattern.

D. Another group focuses attention primarily upon its con-
viction that the ministry requires broader training, particularly
in the social studies, than is possible under the present system.
Others have urged that room be provided for additional academic
courses, that greater flexibility be established in the standard
requirements, and that a system of major and minor sequences
be introduced in College and Seminary to accommodate obvious
variation in the Church’s needs and recognized differences in the
students’ aptitudes and interests. Great importance is attached
also to the need for ministerial graduates of greater maturity.

E. Still another group believes that there is virtue in planning
for improvement and retention of Synod’s present arrangement
in view of the currently growing popularity of the American
Junior College. It is maintained that our Church finds itself with
well-established Junior Colleges and is thus, fortunately, in con-
formity with the most advanced trends in American educational
planning. It does not appear to the Board, however, that the