# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1941_S79
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Seminaries and Colleges. — Individual Institutions 17

California Concordia College, Oakland, Calif.
Report of the Board of Control
(Memorial 111)

1. In accordance with the resolution which you adopted in
1938, our school, for the past three years, has been coeducational.
Although this new venture was begun hurriedly and without the
opportunity for anything but the minimum of publicity, twelve girls
were enrolled in the school-year 1938—1939. This number was
more than doubled during the following two years. The number
of girls who have availed themselves of the educational opportunity
which you provided is, we are certain, a clear indication of the de-
mand of our people for a Christian education for their girls of high-
school age. This fact becomes more impressive when we remember
that our school made no essential changes in its curriculum and
that it has not been in a position to offer boarding facilities or to add
courses which would make the school attractive especially for girls.
In other words, the parents sent their daughters to our school pre-
cisely because they were interested in Christian education and not
because of any appeal which might have been made with specially
featured courses for girls or with attractive boarding facilities.
That this demand for Christian education on a secondary level will
grow seems inevitable. The emphasis on religious training in
secular schools and the various proposals which are now being
made and tried in a desperate effort to introduce religion into
secular education, together with the quickened interest of con-
temporary American Protestantism in religious education, are
clearly indicative of a definite trend in educational circles today.
As deeply as we must deplore the nature of most of the religious
training which is being advocated and offered, and as anxious as we
may be because of the dangers lurking in State support for religious
education, so keenly must we be alive to the opportunity which this
generation offers our Church to provide our youth with a religious
education which is truly Christian.

That the present emphasis upon religious education outside of
our own circles has helped to awaken our people to the possibilities
of coeducation in our institution seems to be indicated by the live
interest which is being. manifested in our venture in all parts of
our far-flung Districts on the Pacific Coast. This interest reveals
itself not alone in the many inquiries which come to us but also in
a readiness to contribute effort and money for the support of co-
education. It, therefore, seems safe to predict that coeducation will
pay its own way as soon as our people can have the assurance that
it is not merely an experiment but an integral part of our school’s
educational program.

Sed SEL ert ee a.