# LCMS Convention Workbook_St. Louis Missouri_1981_S251 # Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration) HIGHER EDUCATION 251 a replication of any of the education programs offered at other synodical colleges. The college’s teacher-education program uses its own unique combination of means to achieve the goal of graduating synodically trained teachers. There are more than 40 Lutheran elementary schools within the college’s regional constituency (Kansas, Oklahoma, and portions of Colorado and Missouri) that will benefit from the ongoing in-service programs that are part of the Teacher Education Program. The part-time agencies (Sunday school, midweek school, and vacation Bible school) and youth ministries of the parishes of our region will have the opportunity to benefit from the in-service resources the Teacher Education Program can provide. The unique characteristic of the college’s program of educa- tion for elementary schools supported by the congregations of the Synod is the preparation of teachers for small Lutheran schools, an emphasis that is justified by the size and organiza- tion of a majority of the elementary schools of the Synod’s congregations: “Small schools” are defined by the Synod as elementary schools having five or fewer teachers or 100 or fewer students. Approximately 50 percent of the Synod’s 1,300 elementary schools are, by definition, small schools. Approximately 50 percent of the synodically trained teachers placed in Lutheran elementary classrooms each year are placed into small-school classrooms. Approximately 37 percent of the Synod’s 1,300 elementary schools are completely multigrade in their organization—that is, they are small schools. Approximately 75 percent of the Synod’s 1,300 elementary schools have at least one multigrade class. Small Lutheran schools are located in every size com- munity: rural, suburban residential, and urban/metropolitan. The problems and potentials of the small multigrade school differ from those of the large schools with single-grade or departmentalized classes. The instructional, curricular, managerial, and administra- tive requirements of the small multigrade school differ from those of the large schools. Exposure to and preparation for teaching in a small multigrade school is also excellent preparation for teaching in a large school. The opposite is not true. The Parish Worker Program The Parish Worker Program is offered as a five-semester plan of study for the associate in arts degree and as a four-year plan leading to the bachelor of science in parish work. The program allows men and women to offer a variety of com- petencies for service in parish settings: office administration, part-time education, home and institutional visitation/evan- gelism, youth ministry, and church music. The associate in arts degree program emphasizes especially church-office administration, and the bachelor of science in parish work places emphasis on part-time education, evangelism and visi- tation, and youth ministry, with major and minor programs in church music, administration, and secretarial science. The Parish Worker Program offers a plan of preparation for full-time church service that is based on the stated and demonstrated service needs of the congregations of the Synod. The program has been constructed exclusively for support services for congregations and church offices of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod and offers the kind of education that develops a variety of abilities and skills for specific parish needs. The bachelor of science degree program, in the basic requirements and the composite major that all graduates complete, develops abilities in part-time parish religious education, home and institutional visitation, and youth minis- try; in its elective major, minors, and concentrations the program extends the common and basic competencies for additional abilities in either church music (major or minor), business administration (minor), or church-office administra- tion (minor or concentration). The associate in arts degree program, in its basic require- ments for all graduates, develops abilities in church-office administration and part-time parish religious education; in its elective subjects (12 semester hours of elective subjects in one of two areas—music or religious and secretarial education) the associate degree program offers opportunity for additional training in church music or assisting in home and institutional visitation and youth activity programs. The Parish Worker Program in the combinations of skills,’ competencies does not duplicate the main program objectives of other courses of study offered at the colleges of the Synod. The Parish Worker Program permits the development of several competencies so that graduates have flexibility in the service skills they offer and in their capacity to meet the differing needs of parish settings. The number of requests for graduates of the existing Parish Worker Program continues to exceed the number of graduates available for placement. The Nursing Program Nursing education at St. John’s College, introduced into the curriculum during the 1974—75 academic year, is a two-year program of study within the scope of the Associate Degree Nursing Program, which prepares graduates to participate as licensed and effective members of the health-care team, who can render health care service to their fellowmen in a competent and meaningful way. The Associate Degree in Nursing Program is a nationally recognized and professionally accepted curriculum that qualifies graduates for licensure and entry into health-care professions as registered nurses (R.N.) and practical nurses (L.P.N.). The Christian concept of service to people is an integral aspect of the college’s philosophy for nursing education. The principles of Christian ethics undergird the professional edu- cation of students as they prepare to reach out to meet the spiritual, physical, social, and emotional needs of those they serve. The Associate Degree in Nursing Program offers at St. John’s College provides two levels of education and training for professional health-care study preparation within the one integrated and coordinated program of study. Students com- pleting the first level (first academic year and summer session) are eligible to receive the Certificate in Practical Nursing and to take Kansas State Board of Nursing examinations for licensure as a practical nurse (L.P.N.). The completion of the second level (the second academic year) qualifies graduates to receive the associate degree in nursing (ADN) and to take Kansas board examinations for licensure as a registered nurse (R.N.). The program has the accreditation of the Kansas State Board of Nursing as a health-care program and the accredita- tion of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools as an academic program offering of the college. Graduates of the program have achieved a high level of success in writing the state examinations. In 1980 all graduates writing the examinations for licensure as registered nurses passed all sections of the examinations on their first effort. Moreover, no student, at either the LPN or RN level, has failed to achieve licensure because of failure to pass all sections of the examinations on the first or second writing. (Students can take the examinations twice. Failure to pass them in two attempts requires students to retake appropriate nursing-education courses to qualify for yet another attempt to qualify for licensure.) The Associate Degree in Nursing Program at St. John’s is the only curriculum of this kind offered at a Lutheran college or university in the United States. The College’s experience in planning and supporting a successful Associate Degree Nursing Program is the basis on which to plan for the extension of nursing education to the baccalaureate level at an appropriate time in the future. The Associate Degree Nursing Program has been favorably received and well supported in both church and civic commun- ities that the college serves so that the program has achieved a high degree of financial self-sufficiency. The Liberal Arts Program The Liberal Arts Program at St. John’s College is a baccalaureate-degree course of study that provides a broadly