# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1947_S209
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

SEMINARIES AND COLLEGES 207

served in this atmosphere than in that of the classroom or office.
This does not mean that student guidance should begin and end
in the residence hall. This section is only one phase of the pro-
gram. To be successful, all the work at the school should func-
tion in co-ordination with the guidance program.

Because of the nature of this work, it will probably be most
effective in our schools to apply the system first to the high school
boys only. To establish proper traditions as original attitudes will
be easier than substituting good attitudes for inferior ones. Ac-
cordingly, it is also necessary that considerable patience be exer-
cised in the early evaluation of results, since the suggested process
of infiltration will require a substantial amount of time to achieve
readily observable results.

Qualifications

When listing the qualifications of Residence-hall Counselors,
we need to remind ourselves that mere technical training and in-
terest will not suffice of themselves. To serve our Church’s needs
in this respect, more than a knowledge of psychology and psychoses
is required. The vastly more important ability rightly to divide
and correctly to apply the Law and the Gospel are unconditional
prerequisites.

The Housemaster must have many other attributes, for he will
be meeting his students in all sorts of situations in what amounts
to almost a twenty-four-hour-a-day job. Even a partial list of
qualifications appears to be quite long; yet it is necessarily so:

1. A Housemaster and Counselor must be a man of deepest
personal faith. He must have a profound love for and knowledge
of the Word of God, which he desires to use as the guide and
motive in the training of the Church’s future servants.

2. A Housemaster and Counselor must possess a detailed
knowledge of the attitudes and qualities required in the work of
Lutheran ministers and teachers and a thorough understanding of
the very extensive variety of qualifications which might serve the
Synod in its vast multiplicity of functions.

3. A Residence-hall Counselor must possess sympathetic un-
derstanding of the student’s problems. In other words, ability to
“walk in the student’s shoes” is of paramount importance.

4. He should have some training and experience in the field
of guidance, so that he will realize his limitations and capitalize
on his opportunities.

5. He should have a general knowledge of educational and
professional trends, so that he can acquaint students with desirable
procedures in making their choices.

6. He should reside in the hall for full realization of guidance