# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1950_S238
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

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268 PARISH EDUCATION

Hour, and Concordia Publishing House. Lessons for the Pri
Junior, Intermediate, and Senior Departments have been produced
by the editor and assistant editor of Sunday school materials, except
those for the initial quarter, which were produced with some
assistance from the field. There has been some demand for a con.
firmation course, to run in conjunction with the Sunday School by
Mail materials. Thus far the Board for Parish Education has not
been able to act on the demand for this particular type of material

In connection with the Supreme Court decision in the McCol.
lum case, the Board for Parish Education made available to the
District Boards for Parish Education copies of the Supreme Court
decision and a summary statement of findings essential for guidance
based on the decision and its interpretation.

The Board for Parish Education has made an exhaustive study
of the problem of Federal Aid and authorized its Executive Secre.
tary to present the views of the Board in a brief before a committee
of the Congress. Although the brief could not be presented in
person, copies were mailed to all members of the Committee on
Education and Labor, and copies of the same brief were then made
available to the District Boards for Parish Education.

The Board held regular monthly meetings to discuss problems
and progress in every area of education under its supervision, heard
reports from staff members, and gave guidance to them in their
work. Several meetings were held with the Board for Higher
Education on the question of teacher supply and demand and
the possibilities of a unified training program. At two regular
meetings each year representatives of the seminaries and the
teachers’ colleges and the Praesidium were in attendance to discuss
important problems with us. Through the members of the staff
the Board has maintained contact with the field, largely offering
service on call to District conventions, pastors’ and teachers’ con-
ferences, meetings of Sunday school workers, and other types of
educational meetings. Some meetings were held with District
Boards for Parish Education under the initiative of the Board for
Parish Education. It is our plan to expand this type of service.

The annual Educational Conference, authorized by the Cen-
tennial Convention, has been of tremendous assistance in unifying
the leadership of parish education in our Synod. The various
District Boards have been extremely co-operative both in attending
the Conference and’ in carrying out its resolutions. The major
emphasis in the 1949 Educational Conference concerned the goal
that Synod had set for school expansion. The major topic for the

1950 Convention will concern a Sunday school expansion program.
The Board found it necessary to approach the Board of

PARISH EDUCATION 269

Direntors with a request for a subsidy for several textbooks. Since
the:-textbooks for our schools are printed in first editions of
oxi tely 15,000 as compared with the 100,000-copy run of
first editions of public school textbooks, it is necessary for Synod
to provide a subsidy so that the books can be offered by Con-
. cordia Publishing House at prices comparable to those offered to
our schools by public school textbook publishing companies. The
Board of Directors evidenced its interest in our schools also here
by appropriating funds to make possible a lower price for the two
new textbooks, Treasury of Christian Literature and The Church
Through the Ages.

The Board for Parish Education has also enjoyed the co-
operation of the Department of Publicity and Missionary Educa-
tion. Through the good offices of this department it was possible
to make available each year several free educational tracts and
to promote Christian education through various materials. The
annual issues of Parish Activities, the booklets Studying His Word
Lutheran School Teaching as a Career, A Family Life Program
for the Parish, Evangelism Through the Sunday School, and other
tracts were made available with the co-operation of this department.

The Board for Parish Education kept close contact with the
field in planning the preparation of new materials. The Sunday
School Conference, held in February 1949, made an effective con-
tribution toward the planning of the new Sunday school curricu-
lum. The Workshop on Lutheran Elementary One-Teacher Schools.
held during the summer of 1948, contributed to the welfare of our
school system by showing how various problems arising from the
founding and maintenance of one-teacher schools can be solved.
The Workshop in Religious Education, held at Seward in the an
mer of 1949, under the leadership of Mr. William Kramer, proved
a long step forward in the direction of improved instructional
materials in Religion for the intermediate and upper grades. The
Board for Parish Education is grateful to Concordia Publishing
House for helping to finance the Sunday School Curriculum Con-
ference and to the Committee on Allocation of the C.T.O. Funds
for a grant to the Workshop in Religious Education.

The Board maintained contact with the Lutheran Education
Association by having its Executive Secretary represent it at most
of the meetings. The Board also subsidized in part the publication

arent henteding noahps in the Christian Home by Prof.

In keeping with a resolution of the Centenni i
Board for Parish Education has issued, since Jena ead Penn
Education and mailed it free of charge to all active pastors and
teachers. Many local boards of education and an increasing number