# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1956_S285
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

284 PARISH EDUCATION

bringing together representatives of all District Boards for Parish
Education and of the seminaries and teachers colleges, for the
discussion of common problems in the field of parish education.
No meeting is scheduled for 1956. These meetings have been of
mutual benefit to the Synodical Board for Parish Education and
to the District Boards in the development of our parish education
program. The staff members of the Board have also participated
in the Superintendents Conference, which brings together the full-
time directors of Christian education for an annual meeting devoted
to the consideration of techniques and methods that will advance
the cause of Christian education. On occasion, the- Executive
Secretary of the Board and other Staff Members have met with
individual District Boards of Education to counsel with them
on the development of an adequate leadership program in the
District.

In all of these activities the Board for Parish Education and
its Staff have tried very hard to discharge the responsibilities
entrusted to them by Synod. That God has kept alive in all of
Synod a keen realization of the importance of Christian education
in the life of the church is clear from the following reports. The
reports by departments also include specific recommendations as
to how we might deal with problems that confront us in the field
of parish education.

B. Elementary Schools

The expansion of our parochial school system, which began
in the early forties, continued unabated during the past triennium.

Three-Year Net Gains

1952 1955 Net Gain
Number of Schools ___ 1,286 1,331 45
Classrooms 3,492 4,153 661
Enrollment __ 106,309 125,640 19,331

For the past ten years the net gains have been 147 schools,
1,662 classrooms, and 47,406 pupils. We speak of “net gains” because
each year also a certain number of schools are consolidated, sus-
pended for lack of teachers, or closed. Thus, in the fall of 1955,
54 schools were opened in North America, but 36 of the previous
year were closed or suspended, leaving a net gain of only 18.

The Teacher Demand and Supply

Our greatest need is teachers. Although Synod has more than
doubled its teacher training during the past decade, it is not yet
furnishing 50 per cent of the annual need; in fact, it is not even
supplying enough teachers to replace the annual loss. In the fall
of 1955, for example, 690 teachers (601 of them temporary) had
to be replaced, but Synod furnished only 427 (218 graduates,

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