THE STORY OF OUR LUTHERAN SCHOOLS, PART FOUR
In part one of this series, I summarized the history of the Lutheran school in America. In part two, I showed how Martin Luther led the way to the establishment of Lutheran schools, and quoted from his 1524 essay on the subject. In part three, I quoted extensively from Luther's 1530 essay on the subject. If you have not read these essays, please contact our church office to get a copy.
Now we come to the question of "What is different about Lutheran schools?" compared to the alternatives. Our schools are different from public schools in that they are intentionally religious schools with moral instruction. The "separation of church and state" that restricts public school teachers in matters of faith and morals does not restrict our teachers from sharing their Christian faith, teaching the Bible, praying with students, and teaching the students what the Bible says about what is right and wrong.
How is a Missouri Synod school different from other religious schools? Almost all Christian "parochial" schools have teachers who share their Christian faith, teach the Bible, pray with their students, and teach the students what the Bible says about what is right and wrong. We are glad that these other schools do that, because this builds a strong Christian fabric into our communities and our nation.
But there are some differences in our schools, simply because we are Lutheran. That means that the Gospel predominates in our teaching, not the Law, because the Gospel is the power of salvation for those who have faith (Romans 1:16). That means that we talk mostly about Jesus, because he is the only Way, Truth and Life (John 14:6). No one can come to the Father through prayer, or other means, except through Jesus (John 14:6). That means that we talk mostly about God's love for all people, because this is what caused God to send Jesus into the world (John 3:16) and to prepare the Israelites to hear and accept Jesus, their Messiah.
If there is a single idea that we Lutherans want our students to learn, it is the fourth article of the Augsburg Confession(1530), which states:"[People] cannot be justified before God by their own strength, merits, or works, but are freely justified for Christ's sake through faith when they believe that they are receive into favor and that threir sins are forgiven on account of Christ, who by His death made satisfaction for our sins. This faith God imputes for righteousness in his sight (Romans 3 and 4)."
Why is this idea of "justification" important? Because it defines and explains saving faith. The person who believes these things and has this faith is saved eternally! Our religious curriculum is focused on this idea, though its full extent is defined by Martin Luther's Small Catechism.
In other respects, our elementary schools are similar to other elementary schools, with some unique emphases. One way to gauge this is to see what the curriculum was at the first Missouri Synod "teacher's seminary" in 1869. This was at Addison, Illinois, which later moved to River Forest. Three professors were employed by the synod to teach young men the subjects that they would then teach to their elementary-school-age students. The three professors were give the following assignments of classes [curriculum from Evangelisch-Lutherisches Schulblatt, July 1869, page 335]:
C.A.T.Selle -- Bible History, Lutheran Confessions, Geography, English (a foreign language to most of the members of the Missouri Synod at that time), and Piano.
Karl Brauer -- Singing, violin, Piano, Organ, and Music Theory.
J.C.W.Lindemann -- Catechism, Introduction to the Bible, Memorization, Introduction to Education, Practical Catechetics, German, Mathematics, History, Natural History (i.e., Science), Penmanship (in German and English), and Drawing (an art class).
Here you can see the universal "three R's" of elementary schools: reading (German and English), writing (German and English), and arithmetic (Mathmatics). Here there was already a difference from public schools in that Missouri Synod school students became bi-lingual at an early age. Geography, History, Science, and Art are still common subjects in elementary schools today. We would expect the History and Science courses to have Christian emphases and perspectives, as is proper.
What is unique about this curriculum is, of course, its religious subject matter and , surprisingly, its excellence in music. All elementary school students in Missouri Synod were expected to learn how to sing, and all elementary school teachers were expected to learn how to play piano, so they could lead the singing. With this foundation, the Missouri Synod trained future congregations members to participate in worship with the great literature of Christian hymnody and Lutheran liturgy. The Lutheran church in America thus truly became a "singing church," far beyond its peers.
By the way, the Karl Brauer listed above was a probable relative of our principal, Fred Brauer. Fred's father, Friedrich E.Brauer, III (1926-2011) was a faculty member at Concordia College, Saint Paul, Minnesota from 1967-1989, in the department of Music. Family traditions in church worker professions are strong in the Missouri Synod and we at Grace Church and School benefit from that.
Yours in Christ, Pastor Martin R. Noland
