# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1854 08 15_S203
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

203

at the same time be suitably employed. This task is therefore difficult because the number of subjects to be taught is large, the age and capacity of the pupils very different, and the time for instruction usually only short. In addition there come here in America manifold circumstances whereby the solution of that question is made much harder for the teacher than it is in the old fatherland, namely, especially in the country, through irregular attendance, through the continual arrival and departure of children of new immigrants or of families moving farther into the West, and so forth. — That question must therefore be of particular interest to the teacher here; for if he fails to hit the right tact in his school in this matter, he will, with all exertion, have but little effect on the whole. — Two false steps, which will be very detrimental in their consequences to the flourishing of the school, are especially those to which the teacher is often led. One is namely at first easily inclined, especially in large schools, to have in view only the more advanced and older pupils, and to limit the instruction of the weaker and smaller ones to a few branches of instruction. That this, however, is a blunder, wherewith the school as a whole cannot prosper, is easy to see. The teacher should in every hour and during the whole instruction take all pupils into consideration; for apart from the fact that he ought to act justly toward every child also in this respect, he will very soon have to perceive the detrimental consequences of such a method of teaching. If the smaller children are not kept continually occupied (naturally according to their strength), going to school becomes a burden to them, they do not go gladly to school, prefer to stay at home, and, if they must come after all, they will, during the time when they are left unoccupied, do idle things, such as chatting and so forth. Should the teacher also prevent the latter by strict measures, the error committed will inevitably come to light after years; through sitting still and doing nothing they have become dreamers.— — — The second error, to which one is very easily led, especially when the school is irregularly attended, is this, that because it then becomes rather difficult, one follows no fixed and definite plan of study, but teaches now this, now that, and so goes on teaching without having a definite aim before one's eyes. But the teacher thereby scatters his powers and confuses himself, so that sooner or later he must lose all joy in keeping school; he confuses the children too, and a certain routine and little fruit of instruction will be the necessary consequence. To teach in the school without a fixed and definite plan seems to me just as hazardous and uncertain as if a skipper were to undertake a long sea voyage without a compass. Order shall and must prevail in a school in every respect, also in the course of study.

One might object to me: "How is it possible to follow a definite schedule of hours when the school is so irregularly attended?" Indeed it then becomes very difficult, but one should not let oneself be disturbed thereby in the plan once drawn up; for ordinarily a certain number of pupils comes regularly, and these then form the core of the school, with which one can well follow a plan.

If the teacher wishes to avoid those two errors mentioned in keeping school, it is absolutely necessary that he teach according to a schedule of hours. But before he can draw it up for a certain quarter, he must first seek to learn the standing of his pupils in knowledge and ability, which is certainly done quite soon, and then make up his mind what he intends to teach in the course of the quarter. When he has now divided his pupils into definite classes with regard to the subjects to be taught, and has duly arranged the subjects according to the various classes and according to the hours of instruction, he must then follow the plan adopted, and by all means guard against too many innovations.— — — — —

The question now arises: how should the schedule of hours for a German Lutheran parish school here be constituted?

In drawing it up, as already indicated above, several points are to be considered, namely the pupils, the subjects of instruction, the hours of instruction, and so forth. Chiefly there are two questions that come into consideration. The first is: "what subjects shall be taught?"— and the second: "how are they to be arranged with regard to the various classes and individual hours of instruction?"— I must further remark that in what follows I have in mind a school which is attended by children from the sixth to the fourteenth year of age, and that five times a week, six hours daily,

1. What subjects shall be taught in such a school? In order to learn these, it will first be necessary to state what the purpose of a Lutheran parish school is.

The purpose of such a school is in general: "the education of youth."— To what end shall our children be educated? If one considers that through bodily birth they were placed by the dear God in this world, wherein they shall also remain until death, but also that through holy Baptism they have been received into the Christian Church, in which they are to stand here as believing members, that they may attain there to glory and to blessed beholding; then one will easily perceive what the nature of the education of the children ought to be. Since they are the dearly purchased and redeemed lambs of the LORD, it is above all things the task of the Lutheran teacher to make the children entrusted to him acquainted with the Lord who created them, protects and provides for them, has redeemed them from sin, death and devil, and offers and presents to them in Word and Sacraments the acquired grace. The children are to learn how they may believe aright, live Christianly and die blessedly. In short, religion, and indeed as the same is taught by our Church pure and clear, shall be the central point about which the whole education must turn, the salt and the seasoning of all instruction. And where this is not the case, there can be no talk of a Christian school, much less of a Lutheran one; for in this the LORD Jesus and His Word is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.— The Lutheran school wants genuine cultivation of the whole man for his whole lifetime, for time and eternity; it therefore sets its aim in education much higher and farther than the so-called state schools. In these the children are made fit for this world alone, and their souls' deepest need and greatest distress is not thought of at all; but the Lutheran school wants to educate out of its children also Christian citizens of the world, male and female, though before all things, by God's help, believing Christians and blessed citizens of heaven. The latter aim is indeed superior to the former—and must never be made a side matter, as, alas! has been the case in recent time in most schools of Germany; yet those subjects the knowledge of which is necessary for the earthly life should in any case also be taught in a Lutheran school. The children must, after all, live in this world, and should therefore also receive in the school a foundation in the knowledge and ability which they will need some day as citizens. Christians are the best citizens, and must therefore also strive to acquire those capabilities which are expected of such. For these reasons I can never declare myself in agreement with the opinion of those who think that in a Christian school only such subjects ought to be taught as have reference to religion.

Having briefly stated the purpose of a Luth. parish school, it follows of itself which subjects are to be taught, namely first and chiefly religion and what has reference to it, then also those worldly subjects with which acquaintance is indispensable to us. To the former belong: "Instruction in the catechism; biblical history, and as a continuation church history; learning by heart and reciting of Biblical choice passages and of church hymns of the kernel; finally instruction in singing, and indeed with special regard to the old church melodies. To the worldly subjects belong: "Reading, writing, arithmetic and language (both English and German) as principal subjects; and then also the generally use-