Lutheran schools and education were a priority for Lutherans who migrated to the United States and Australia from Germany and Scandinavia. One of the first things they did was to create schools for their children. This strong educational tradition was handed down from Martin Luther himself. The oldest continuously operating school in the United States is St. Matthew Lutheran School in Manhattan. It was started in 1752 and still operates preschool through eighth grades.
When the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS) was founded in 1847, this tradition of Lutheran education was continued. The synod was started by twelve churches that operated a total of nineteen schools. Several of the churches operated a number of schools in the rural countryside so that students would not have to walk too far to school each day.
Read more about Lutheran Schools: Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod: Statistics, Operations
Famous quotes containing the word schools:
“Columbus stood in his age as the pioneer of progress and enlightenment. The system of universal education is in our age the most prominent and salutary feature of the spirit of enlightenment, and it is peculiarly appropriate that the schools be made by the people the center of the day’s demonstration. Let the national flag float over every schoolhouse in the country and the exercises be such as shall impress upon our youth the patriotic duties of American citizenship.”
—Benjamin Harrison (1833–1901)