The Purposes and Values of Early Lutheran

Education in Australia

Are they still evident in schools today?

A Presentation by Jessica Scholar.

Klemzig Village: First South Australian Lutheran Settlement

August Kavel

o Prussian migrants led by August Kavel landed in South Australia in 1838.

o Built a church and a school first.

o Lutheran church values shaped the aims and purposes of the schools.

Lutheran New Testament worship according to the

Lutheran confessions

o Sound gospel and confessional teaching.

o Missionary work.o Theological training

of pastors.o Importance of

worship (in the German language).

o Sharing of knowledge and faith to both genders.

Early Lutheran settlement

Lutheran schools:o Were coeducational.o Held classes in German.o Nurtured the Lutheran

faith of students.Why a Lutheran School? suggests there were four main purposes of Lutheran schools. These were to:o Develop the faith of the

children;o Preserve the German

language and culture;o Fill the need for basic

education;o Prepare the children to

be pastors and teachers.

Gravestone of Daniel Fritzsche in Lobethal

o Early Lutherans wanted to train and qualify their own teachers.

o Daniel Fritzsche“…we must

train them [teachers] properly in religious and secular knowledge, and we must have the training facilities and the people to do this.”

Early Lobethal Lutheran school built in 1850.

o Schools would ensure the future of the Lutheran church.

o High regard for education.

o Reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, history, natural history, music and German.

o German langauge was important for worship as the liturgy and Luther’s bible were in German.

o School was compulsory for Lutheran children.

o Set up pastor and teacher training.

St John’s Lutheran church and school in Kalbar after

1908.

o School buildings at the centre of villages.

o By 1875, there were 49 Lutheran schools in South Australia, and more in Queensland and Victoria.

o Schools were expensive to maintain and many new migrants were inclined to send their children to state schools.

o Popularity of Lutheran schools decreased by the early twentieth century.

Wilhelm Boehm

o Wilhelm Boehm started an academy for training pastors and teachers in Hahndorf that was state funded.

o Created tension with the other Lutheran school in the town.

o The two schools eventually joined to become the largest Lutheran school in South Australia.

o Demonstrated a successful cooperation between the state and the Lutheran system.

Australian WWI soldiers

o WWI and WWII led to anti-German sentiment and all of the South Australian primary schools were closed during WWI.

o Only six Lutheran schools in South Australia by 1930.

o Less emphasis placed on German in Lutheran schools and this allowed the Prussian community to integrate more successfully into Australian society.

o However, many other values stayed consistent and the number of Lutheran schools continued to grow.

Lutheran Schools Association of South Australia, Northern

Territory and Western Australia Inc. logo

o Many of the original school values are still important in Lutheran schools today.

o Sharing the Gospel with students and providing a quality education are two main purposes of Lutheran schooling today.

o Commitment to quality education is clear in the variety of subjects offered at Lutheran schools and the incorporation of state recognised certificates, such as the VCE.

o Still great importance on teacher training for Lutheran schools.

o Courses like the Lutheran Strand at the Australian Lutheran College equip teachers with the basic Lutheran beliefs and values in order to teach Christian Studies.

Lutheran Church of Australia logo

o Worship is still an integral part of Lutheran school life.

o Students attend chapel and have class devotions.

o Links between school and church are still strong and often worship services intersect.

o Still a strong mission focus.

o Schools hold fundraisers for overseas mission through fairs, casual days with gold coin donations, special food days.

o Chapel offering often goes to missions.

o Community mission is achieved through student involvement in the town, such as nursing home visits.

o Breeds a spirit of giving and love in the students.

o Today, there is more integration with the wider community.

o Less or no emphasis on the German language.

Many of the core values have stayed the same including:o The importance of the

Gospel;o Providing a high standard

of education;o Training teachers in

Lutheran doctrine;o The importance of church

and school links;o The spirit of mission.

ReferencesBartsch, Malcolm, 2001. Why a Lutheran School?, Board for Lutheran Schools, North Adelaide, Australia.

Hauser, Richard J., 1999. Australian Lutheran Education Yearbook (Volume 3), Board for Lutheran Schools, North Adelaide, Australia.

______, 2009. The Patriarchs: A History of Australian Lutheran Schooling, Lutheran Education Australia, North Adelaide, Australia.

Ruwoldt, Merryn, 2012. Classroom discussion on the values of the early Lutheran church and schools in Australia, given at Australian Lutheran College, 29 February.

______, 2012. Distributed notes from the LCA Synodical Policy edited October 2001, given at Australian Lutheran College, 29 February.