# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1884_S51
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Fourth Delegate Synod of Missouri, Ohio, and Other States. 1884.   51

The Functions of the Presidents, or Directors, of Our Synodical
Teaching Institutions, together with a Prior Justification of
the Necessity of the Former.

"In teaching institutions, oversight is necessary not merely over the pupils, but also over the teachers. And it is not enough merely to see, in general, whether they stand correctly in doctrine and life; it is also necessary, in particular, to see whether they attend to their special office with faithfulness and skill, whether they teach what is right correctly, whether they actually cover the fixed curriculum with their pupils — not assigning too much and not too little — whether they know how to maintain order and attention, whether they treat the individual pupils impartially and rightly, whether they work hand in hand with one another toward achieving the overall goal — in short, whether they do, for the good of the institution, what they are able to do at all.

"For such oversight, however, the private, occasional, mutual intercourse and exchange of thoughts among the teachers is not sufficient. An office is needed to which this oversight is expressly made a duty, but to which the corresponding necessary authority must also be assigned.

"This our Synod has indeed recognized, and for that reason it already established, in the year 1854, the office of a president at the institution in St. Louis, and charged him with: exercising general oversight over the whole institution; attending the teaching hours of all the teachers in the gymnasium and watching that the annual curriculum, as prescribed according to the division of the subject matter over a six-year course, be duly gone through, and that a method suited to the subject matter be followed; giving reminders where necessary; and exercising the fatherly rule of the household with respect to the students, as well as the general oversight over the Director of the gymnasium as such." (See "Synodical Handbook," 1st ed., pp. 36 and 37.)

"This office, which was then also established for Fort Wayne and Addison, proved itself well too, as long as it was carried on according to the original plan. But when the pairing of 2 institutions at one location ceased, unevenness arose. In St. Louis the presidency remained, but the directorate was lacking. In Springfield there was neither of the two, until the second-to-last General Synod elected a Director. In Fort Wayne and Addison both offices did exist; but since the presidents no longer taught and lived at the institution, and since for that reason they were no longer expected to perform many important functions, but rather one function after another was taken from them — even pastoral care of the pupils — various inconveniences arose; indeed, the office of the presidency fell, between the Board of Control and the directorate, into an unsteady and suspended position.

[Printer's sheet signature "4" at bottom center; not a page number.]