THE STORY OF OUR LUTHERAN SCHOOLS, PART SIX
In this sixth, and final part, of our series on Lutheran schools, I want to look at how the Lutheran parochial school was understood in the twentieth century in the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod. This would be after the synod had transitioned to the English language and before it began to be influenced in certain places by "modernism" in theology and educational theory.
For a "window" into this period, we can look at Edward W.A.Koehler's A Christian Pedagogy, published in 1930. At the time Koehler was teaching a required course titled "Christian Pedagogy" at Concordia Teachers College in River Forest, Illinois. This book thus tells us what college students who were planning to become Lutheran teachers were actually being taught at the time.
Koehler admits in the Foreword to his book that "the general groundwork of the present volumne and much of the subject matter was taken from J.C.W.Lindemann's excellent chapters on Schulerziehung" [school training]. Lindemann had been the president and professor at the LC-MS Addison Teacher's Seminary from 1864-1879. This means that the ideas and practices in Koehler's book go back to the beginning of the LC-MS elementary education program and demonstrate great continuity across the nineteenth twentieth centuries.
At various times in the LC-MS elementary education program, its leaders looked to the public schools for ideas into their methods and practices. Sometimes LC-MS students with a good training in theology at church and home studied in non-Lutheran teacher education programs. My great-grandfather, Johann H.F.Hoelter, enrolled in the Saint Louis Central High School teacher education program in 1891, under the encouragement and guidance of his father, Heinrich Hoelter, who was an LC-MS school principal in Saint Louis. This high school had one of the best teacher education programs west of the Mississippi River at the time. Johann graducated in June 1895, served as an LC-MS teacher in Missouri for ten years, then was called to Saint John Lutheran School, San Francisco in 1905, where he served for the rest of his career.
Regarding the public schools, Koehler said:
We ought to be very careful in our criticism of the public schools. We must not imagine that, because they lack Christian instruction and training, they are also of no account in every other respect. Let us study their courses and their methods, their requirements and their achievements, and make use of whatever is sane, good, and profitable ....
We must not create the impression as though we expect the state schools to make suitable provision for the Christian instruction and training of children. We oppose every attempt on the part of the state to do so. It is in the interest of the state to provide facilities for the education of its citizens. But it is no fault nor neglect of the civil authorities if they do not provide a religious education. On the contrary, they would transgress the limit of their power and trespass upon the most personal rights of individuals if they would teach and enforce upon all under their jurisdiction a certain type of religious education.
Although Koehler was a strong promoter of the Lutheran parochial school, and considered it, next to the Christian home "the most effective agency for the Christian training of children," he also commented on the Sunday school as an agency for Christian education for children when no parochial school was available. Comparing the Sunday School to the Lutheran parochial school, Koehler said this in his A Christian Pedagogy:
It stands to reason that a child occupying himself ... intensely with the study of God's Word and being subject to Christian influence five days a week will receive more lasting impressions and a more thorough Christian training than a child that attends Sunday-school but once a week for a brief hour. While half a loaf is better than none, and a good Christian Sunday-school is better than no Christian school at all, a true evaluation of the Christian parochial school will show that both in instruction and training it is far superior to the best Sunday-school.
Since the teaching of religion is an essential part of the curriculum of a parochial school, Lutheran teachers ought to be knowledgeable in Holy Scripture and have a good understanding of biblical doctrine. With respect to knowing Scripture, Koehler observed:
As the Word of God is the chief means of Christian training, it is evident that a Christian pedagogue must acquire an exact knowledge of its teachings and of their use .... In order .... to teach plainly and to train effectively, the educator must himself have a thorough knowledge of the Christian doctrine .... Vague and hazy knowledge is often the cause of indefinite and ineffective teaching.
In order to assist students learn Scripture and doctrine in an exact and thorough way, Koehler authored a book titled A Summary of Christian Doctrine (St Louis: CPH, 1939), which was still being used at Concordia Teacher's College, River Forest when I was studying to be a Lutheran parochial school teacher in 1976-1979. It is presently available through Concordia Publishing House in its third revised edition.
Our Lutheran schools are indeed a treasure to benefit parents, children, as well as our neighbors in the community! May our Lord continue to bless our schools, as they continue to teach God's Word for generations to come!
Yours in Christ, Pastor Martin R. Noland
