LCMS Convention Workbook St. Louis, Missouri — 1981, Page 251

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HIGHER EDUCATION 251

a replication of any of the education programs offered at other
synodical colleges.

The college’s teacher-education program uses its own
unique combination of means to achieve the goal of graduating
synodically trained teachers.

There are more than 40 Lutheran elementary schools within
the college’s regional constituency (Kansas, Oklahoma, and
portions of Colorado and Missouri) that will benefit from the
ongoing in-service programs that are part of the Teacher
Education Program.

The part-time agencies (Sunday school, midweek school,
and vacation Bible school) and youth ministries of the parishes
of our region will have the opportunity to benefit from the
in-service resources the Teacher Education Program can
provide.

The unique characteristic of the college’s program of educa-
tion for elementary schools supported by the congregations of
the Synod is the preparation of teachers for small Lutheran
schools, an emphasis that is justified by the size and organiza-
tion of a majority of the elementary schools of the Synod’s
congregations:

“Small schools” are defined by the Synod as elementary
schools having five or fewer teachers or 100 or fewer students.

Approximately 50 percent of the Synod’s 1,300 elementary
schools are, by definition, small schools.

Approximately 50 percent of the synodically trained
teachers placed in Lutheran elementary classrooms each year
are placed into small-school classrooms.

Approximately 37 percent of the Synod’s 1,300 elementary
schools are completely multigrade in their organization—that
is, they are small schools.

Approximately 75 percent of the Synod’s 1,300 elementary
schools have at least one multigrade class.

Small Lutheran schools are located in every size com-
munity: rural, suburban residential, and urban/metropolitan.

The problems and potentials of the small multigrade school
differ from those of the large schools with single-grade or
departmentalized classes.

The instructional, curricular, managerial, and administra-
tive requirements of the small multigrade school differ from
those of the large schools.

Exposure to and preparation for teaching in a small
multigrade school is also excellent preparation for teaching in
a large school. The opposite is not true.

The Parish Worker Program

The Parish Worker Program is offered as a five-semester
plan of study for the associate in arts degree and as a four-year
plan leading to the bachelor of science in parish work. The
program allows men and women to offer a variety of com-
petencies for service in parish settings: office administration,
part-time education, home and institutional visitation/evan-
gelism, youth ministry, and church music. The associate in
arts degree program emphasizes especially church-office
administration, and the bachelor of science in parish work
places emphasis on part-time education, evangelism and visi-
tation, and youth ministry, with major and minor programs in
church music, administration, and secretarial science.

The Parish Worker Program offers a plan of preparation for
full-time church service that is based on the stated and
demonstrated service needs of the congregations of the Synod.
The program has been constructed exclusively for support
services for congregations and church offices of The Lutheran
Church—Missouri Synod and offers the kind of education that
develops a variety of abilities and skills for specific parish
needs.

The bachelor of science degree program, in the basic
requirements and the composite major that all graduates
complete, develops abilities in part-time parish religious
education, home and institutional visitation, and youth minis-
try; in its elective major, minors, and concentrations the
program extends the common and basic competencies for
additional abilities in either church music (major or minor),
business administration (minor), or church-office administra-
tion (minor or concentration).

The associate in arts degree program, in its basic require-
ments for all graduates, develops abilities in church-office

administration and part-time parish religious education; in its
elective subjects (12 semester hours of elective subjects in one of
two areas—music or religious and secretarial education) the
associate degree program offers opportunity for additional
training in church music or assisting in home and institutional
visitation and youth activity programs.

The Parish Worker Program in the combinations of skills,’
competencies does not duplicate the main program objectives
of other courses of study offered at the colleges of the Synod.

The Parish Worker Program permits the development of
several competencies so that graduates have flexibility in the
service skills they offer and in their capacity to meet the
differing needs of parish settings.

The number of requests for graduates of the existing Parish
Worker Program continues to exceed the number of graduates
available for placement.

The Nursing Program

Nursing education at St. John’s College, introduced into the
curriculum during the 1974—75 academic year, is a two-year
program of study within the scope of the Associate Degree
Nursing Program, which prepares graduates to participate as
licensed and effective members of the health-care team, who
can render health care service to their fellowmen in a competent
and meaningful way. The Associate Degree in Nursing
Program is a nationally recognized and professionally
accepted curriculum that qualifies graduates for licensure and
entry into health-care professions as registered nurses (R.N.)
and practical nurses (L.P.N.).

The Christian concept of service to people is an integral
aspect of the college’s philosophy for nursing education. The
principles of Christian ethics undergird the professional edu-
cation of students as they prepare to reach out to meet the
spiritual, physical, social, and emotional needs of those they
serve.

The Associate Degree in Nursing Program offers at St.
John’s College provides two levels of education and training
for professional health-care study preparation within the one
integrated and coordinated program of study. Students com-
pleting the first level (first academic year and summer session)
are eligible to receive the Certificate in Practical Nursing and
to take Kansas State Board of Nursing examinations for
licensure as a practical nurse (L.P.N.). The completion of the
second level (the second academic year) qualifies graduates to
receive the associate degree in nursing (ADN) and to take
Kansas board examinations for licensure as a registered nurse
(R.N.).

The program has the accreditation of the Kansas State
Board of Nursing as a health-care program and the accredita-
tion of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools
as an academic program offering of the college.

Graduates of the program have achieved a high level of
success in writing the state examinations. In 1980 all graduates
writing the examinations for licensure as registered nurses
passed all sections of the examinations on their first effort.
Moreover, no student, at either the LPN or RN level, has failed
to achieve licensure because of failure to pass all sections of the
examinations on the first or second writing. (Students can take
the examinations twice. Failure to pass them in two attempts
requires students to retake appropriate nursing-education
courses to qualify for yet another attempt to qualify for
licensure.)

The Associate Degree in Nursing Program at St. John’s is
the only curriculum of this kind offered at a Lutheran college or
university in the United States.

The College’s experience in planning and supporting a
successful Associate Degree Nursing Program is the basis on
which to plan for the extension of nursing education to the
baccalaureate level at an appropriate time in the future.

The Associate Degree Nursing Program has been favorably
received and well supported in both church and civic commun-
ities that the college serves so that the program has achieved a
high degree of financial self-sufficiency.

The Liberal Arts Program

The Liberal Arts Program at St. John’s College is a
baccalaureate-degree course of study that provides a broadly