Collection › LCMS Convention Proceedings (St. Louis, Missouri) › 1938 · 37th Convention, St. Louis › Page 36
LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 1938, Page 36

Scan: The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod
Transcription machine transcription, uncorrected

36 Report of the Committee on Higher Education

..-Seme idea as to the scope of. this committee’s work may be
gained from the following list of essays submitted for thorough
discussion, covering about 250 pages of type-written material:

1. How to approach the task of constructing a curriculum for
ministerial training. 2. The objectives of the junior colleges in pre-
paring for St.Louis. 3. A study of the objectives of Concordia
Seminary as related to entrance requirements. 4. Statistics of
time allotment for the various courses on the present curriculum.
5. The need of German in ministerial training. 6. Orientation
courses. 7. The ideal course in religion. 8. The curriculum in
English; 9. in German for the high school; 10. in Latin and Greek;
11. in history for the high school; 12. in political science; 13. in
economics; 14. in sociology; 15. in mathematics; 16. in the natural
sciences. 17. The approach to, and content of, the humanities
course. 18. Physical education. 19. Social contacts of our students.
20. Intelligence, aptitude, personality, and achievement tests.
21. The ideal course in music for our junior colleges. 22. The four-
year curriculum for the St. Louis Seminary. 23. The Springfield
Seminary curriculum.

The essays on the courses contained much detailed material on
objectives and content and elicited much fruitful discussion. Since
all important essays were mimeographed, the various faculties were
enabled to discuss the essays and thus gain a comprehensive view
of the entire curriculum.

In addition to the above papers a number of oral reports were
made by subcommittees on topics such as the placement of Hebrew,
voice-training, library facilities, laboratory equipment, and tuition
for non-ministerial students.

Acting upon instruction of Synod, the committee carefully
studied the basic principles of the curriculum submitted to the
Cleveland Convention by the Committee of Thirteen and on the
basis of its own studies fixed the objectives, content, and time
allotments for each course. The chief changes in the preministerial
curriculum consist in the transfer of Hebrew from the junior col-
leges to the Seminary at St. Louis; the addition of economics,
sociology, and the humanities, the reorganization of the courses in
the natural sciences and in mathematics; and greater emphasis on
directed self-activity. The essential changes in the St. Louis Sem-
inary curriculum were incorporated in the additional year, which
forms the first year of the new four-year program and which will
offer Hebrew, New Testament Greek, Patristic Latin, German
Bible, introduction to church history, symbolics, psychology, peda-
gogy, and homiletics, with special attention to speech. By depress-
ing a number of courses into the new first year, additional time
for deepening theological courses on the higher level has been