# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1956_S151
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

SEMINARIES AND COLLEGES 161

Total teacher need in the next ten years is thus estimated in
the following numbers:

a. Teachers needed for additional classrooms _._.._____ 2,249
b. Teachers needed for replacement ——— 8,623

Total Teacher Need: 10,872

The Teacher Supply

How does Synod obtain its teachers?

The primary source is the teacher-training institutions which
Synod maintains at River Forest and Seward. The 1955 enrollment
at River Forest was 664; at Seward, 544.

As the teacher need made itself felt, other colleges that were
chiefly intended for the preparation of pastors were asked to in-
troduce courses in teacher training. Today 643 teachers are being
trained at all synodical preparatory schools. Except for Winfield
they are expected to continue their training at River Forest or
Seward.

In addition to graduate teachers, River Forest and Seward
furnish numbers of undergraduate teachers.

The second source of teachers is Lutheran men and women
who have not been trained in Synod’s colleges. Some received
their training at secular schools but choose to teach in Synod’s
schools. Others are largely self-taught teachers who have dem-
onstrated their ability to teach well. The congregations procure
them on their own initiative and keep them because they are
satisfied to have them.

There was a time when Synod supplied all teachers, and con-
gregations applied directly to Synod to procure all teachers they
needed. Today the congregations are compelled to secure some-
what more than one half of the annual teacher need on their own
initiative.

Teachers Furnished by Synod

In the past six years Synod furnished a total of 2,045 teachers

of various classifications, as seen in Table Fourteen.

Table 14— Teachers Furnished by Synod
by Spring Assignments, 1950—1955

TEACHERS COLLEGES
Other

Installed Women Men Women Synodical
Year Men Graduates Undergrads. Undergrads. Colleges
1950 57 41 39 51 47
1951 92 49 46 62 40
1952 105 56 54 55 69
1953 117 72 44 44 66
1954 140 73 54 72 73
1955 146 72 34 84 91

Totals: 657 363 271 368 386