# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1950_S897
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

198 SEMINARIES AND COLLEGES.

dents would be required also to complete a minimum of one sum.
mer for temporary assignment to a Lutheran parochial school and %
would require two years in residence at one of. the teachers’ co
leges in order to qualify for the Bachelor of Science in Educa:
tion degree.
Tue Fort Wayne Junior CoLLece a’
While it is true- that the term “junior college” does not always %
denote a pre-professional unit in American educational terminology “
or concept, it will be apparent that the concept of a two-year unit J
is thoroughly established in the American pattern. This is evident
from the fact that the junior college movement is becoming in
creasingly popular in our country. In 1919 only 52 junior colleges *
were listed in the report of the United States Office of Education.

tinues to increase, for the report indicates that thére are today 652 ™
junior colleges wih a total enrollment of 446,734. The report oO
the President’s Commission contemplates a vast expansion in the
decades ahead of two-year post-high school institutions, to be
called community colleges. President Truman’s budget message o
1950 called for $320,000,000 in aid to education, including the be-
ginning of “a program of such community colleges.” ;

It appears, then, that in the long-term outlook, circumstances a
which are already evident are combining to make the two-year E
pattern a popular and accepted concept to which Synod would be a
adapting its own specific requirements if it saw fit to convert from .4
its traditional six-year pattern at some locations. For one thing, 4
there is a new element in Lutheran education since the Lutheran .4
high school has made its appearance. It is only the part of wisdom 4
to carefully investigate the possibility of using this new regional .
development and to avoid duplication in the field. 7

In some areas of our Church’s educational work the conditions 4
which originally made it mandatory for Synod to maintain the high
school level of education no longer exist, although it is agreed that #
the synodical high school brings: real advantages to the Church 4
because it provides opportunity for early professional choice on
the part of our ministerial students and also because of the pro-
found influences exerted through the policy of bringing the student
into direct contact with professional objectives at such an early
and impressionable age. a

In addition, the apparently increasing need for concentration a
of synodical effort on the college level adds to the need for care- ;