# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1950_S146
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

SEMINARIES AND COLLEGES 143

Assumption No. 3 . .
The numerical growth of Synod, the recent increase in the
birth rate, the general acceptance of women teachers, the synod-
ically approved expansion efforts, and diminishing tenure ratios
significant factors materially affecting the demand Placed upon
Synod’s teacher training program.

A study of these and several related factors * seems to indicate
that the “emergency” which created the teacher shortage is not
an emergency at all, but rather a chronic condition which may
require drastic changes in our approach to the solution of the

problem of providing adequate teacher training and supply.

1. Growth of communicant membership in Synod. The com-

and 49, and forecasts the future birth rate. A study of
the “birth rate” in Synod, based on a ratio of Baptisms to
communicant membership, indicates variations similar to
the national birth rate. The forecasts made in these studies

3. Children of school age. The total number of children of
school age was estimated by totaling 8 years of child Bap-
tisms. For any given year this total would include figures
for all Baptisms of children who had attained the ages of
6 through 13 years; kindergarten and 9th grade, not included.
(See Chart No. 13.)

4. Parochial school enrollment. Calculations of enrollments in
the past fifteen years indicated that approximately 30 per
cent of the children of school age attended our Parochial]

Schools, In the 1947 convention, Synod resolved that “gs an

* See additional factors listed in Plan C, “The Teachers Colleges,”
Page 162.