# LCMS Convention Proceedings_St. Louis Missouri_1941_S121
# Machine transcription, uncorrected — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

Report of Board for Higher Education 119

men equipped with an elementary education entered our Spring-
field Seminary and became faithful pastors.

It now becomes necessary, however, for the Board for Higher
Education to point out that a basic change in the situation of our
Springfield Seminary has occurred during the past two decades.
During these years American education on the high-school level
has made great progress. As a consequence the type of student
for which Springfield was originally intended is no longer available.
During the academic year 1940—41 our Concordia Seminary at
Springfield had only one student in the entire high-school de-
partment.

The Board of Control and the faculty of Concordia Seminary
at Springfield were the first to recognize this basic change in
their educational situation and to adjust their curriculum accord-
ingly. It has become necessary year after year to raise the
standard of work done at Springfield in order to accommodate
the students who were and are entirely high-school graduates.
It should be noted that this process of adjusting the curriculum
at Springfield to the needs of the students was inevitable and that
in this way the Board of Control and the faculty at Springfield
have safeguarded the interests of Synod. Their alert and intelli-
gent approach to the problems raised by the changes in the Amer-
ican educational system should be recognized by Synod.

This situation was presented to the Board for Higher Educa-
tion in detail. Your Board made a careful study of all the factors
involved. We have recognized the fact that it was inevitable for
our Springfield authorities to present some definite recommenda-
tions concerning the future of the Seminary to the present
synodical convention. These recommendations as now presented
look toward the establishment of a third college year and the
continuance of a theological seminary on the campus of Spring-
field. In the recommendations which would give Concordia Sem-
inary, Springfield, three years there are certain implications which
Synod should consider earnestly and carefully.. On the basis of
these considerations it may be possible that another solution may
be found which will be more advantageous both to Synod at large
and to Concordia Seminary at Springfield. It should be noted
again that our current educational problems should be considered
in terms of the less immediate future. Changes which are made
at the present time should, if possible, have a certain degree of
permanence.

In considering the possibility of three college years and a
theological seminary on the campus of Concordia Seminary at
Springfield, the following implications should be noted: ,

a) Three or, eventually, four years of senior-college work at