# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1950_S244 # Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration) 278 PARISH EDUCATION for memory work. It appears that a study of these variations in practice is very much in order so that we may set reasonable and adequate standards for confirmation instruction. The Board for Parish Education would encourage all Pastory and teachers’ conferences and congregations to place this important item on their agenda and would encourage also the individual congregations to discuss the provisions in the local congregation for this important phase of the educational program. High Schools Synod at Saginaw in 1944 assigned the promotion and guidance of Lutheran secondary schools to the Board for Parish Education, and since that time the Board has been active in this area, The Board has published two monographs, “Establishing a Lutheran High School” and “Financing a Lutheran High School,” and made them available to leaders in Lutheran high school projecis. The Board for Parish Education is also working in close ¢o.: operation with the Association of Lutheran Secondary Schools, This group has received a grant of $10,000 from the Centennial Research Fund for the purpose of developing a curriculum for Lutheran secondary schools. The research on this project will take somewhat over three years. When completed, however, we shall have a complete curriculum for Lutheran high schools, indicating the specific objectives of the various subject-matter fields, course content and sample resource units for the individual subjects, all in harmony with the Lutheran philosophy of education. The Board for Parish Education has participated in the various workshops previously held to develop a curriculum in religion for secondary schools and will also co-operate in the project of developing the curriculum for Lutheran high schools. Two new high schools have been opened since the last synod- ical convention: Cleveland in September, 1948, and Houston in September, 1949. Both schools have followed the pattern of begin- ning with the freshman and sophomore years and of thus spreading the shaping up of the full program over a three-year period. Interest in Lutheran high schools is high in several other com- munities. At the Centennial Convention the Board for Parish Edu- cation stated that with faith and consecration, and with leadership that sees the importance of Christian education at the secondary level, it should be possible for us to develop twenty new high schools during the next twenty years. This is still an attainable goal. May God give us the consecration and leadership needed to attain it. Figures for the 1949—50 school year indicate the following status of Lutheran secondary education: PARISH EDUCATION 279 | Founded Enrollment 1903 Lutheran High School, Milwaukee, Wis. ° 814 ’ 4909 Luther Institute, Chicago, Il. 620 1916 Concordia Lutheran High School, Fort Wayne, Ind. 375 3930 ‘Trinity Lutheran High School, Oregon City, Oreg. 29 1933 Trinity Lutheran High School, Fort Lauderdale, Fla. 50 1943 Lutheran High School, Racine, Wis. 220 1944 Lutheran High School, Detroit, Mich. ; 330 1946 Lutheran High School, St. Louis, Mo. 600 1948 Lutheran High School, Cleveland, Ohio 150 1949 Lutheran High School, Houston, Tex, 44 3,232 In addition to these regular pupils in Lutheran high schools, there were 226 pupils in separate 9th grades and 819 students in the high school departments of our synodical institutions. This makes a grand total of 4,277 students, or 4.1 per cent of the 104,000 persons of high school age in our Synod. Clearly, the area of Lutheran secondary education is still in need of expansion. Report on Adult Education During the past triennium, God has blessed the work in the field of adult education abundantly. Significant progress was made in two areas: Bible study and family life education. A new Bible study consciousness is noticeable, and some sound planning has been done to inaugurate a Christian family life program. Bible Study The comprehensive resolution on Bible study of the Centennial Convention was followed closely in developing the Bible Study Program. The Board’s Council on Bible Study gave attention to building Bible classes, increasing the fruitful use of God’s Word in elementary education, in the home, among our youth, the training of more Bible teachers through Bible institutes, and ex- ploring the problem of a more readable English Bible. Bible study workshops were conducted in 28 Districts. Persons. trained at District workshops conducted similar conferences in about 70 per cent of Synod’s circuits. Guidance was given to help: Districts appraise their own Bible study and give to their congre- gations continual help toward improvement. A congregational manual, Studying His Word, Interest Finders, and Workshop Reports were published. A new adult Bible study series on the books of the Bible was initiated. Five tracts appeared, and many articles were written. , Bible class enrollments had declined steadily from 7.5 per cent of the communicant membership in 1936 to.4.2 per cent in 1944. ¢