To the editor:

A survey was taken last week in regards to the editorial of October 24 to determine whether the school as a whole felt that the music department was misrepresenting Bethel.

Two hundred fifty-nine replies were returned in which a little less than 25% said we do misrepresent the school, but several of these who felt we misrepresent the school also stated that the touring groups portray a college of higher spiritual and moral standards than is actually present on campus.

About three-fifths of those who replied had heard the touring groups before coming to Bethel.  Some stated that contacts with these groups had great influence or were the direct cause of their coming to Bethel.

Music, a recognized and accepted media of communication, is also performance oriented.  May I suggest that it is the "timid bookish parasites" who have the ability and nerve to stand up before audiences in chapel, churches and elsewhere to play and sing, often as soloists.  One can't be too timid or too bookish to do this!  As for "pop" music--Bethel is an institution for higher learning.  If our touring groups sing and play the current popular music, we are not representing the ideals of higher education in the field of music.  And since the best learning is integrated learning, should we not perform music which we are learning about in the classroom?  We can't portray a higher musical education to others if we sing "pop" music and those who support Bethel are assuming that we come here to learn more and better things than what is heard on the radio and TV.  They assume we will leave Bethel with broader educations than those we came with.  If this is to be so, we must study, and hopefully learn to appreciate, and somehow help others to learn to appreciate more intellectual music.

There is no reason, then, why Bethel's music department need drastically change.  We do represent the school well, we do influence many to come here, and we represent a higher education musically, even as other departments represent higher education in their respective fields, and no one feels they should change their curriculums to a more "pop" level.

Jo Ellen Worrell '70