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Volume III Friday, September 25, 1959 Number 1

CONCERT SERIES TO BEGINMeet Mr. Grotenhuis 128 Students Enroll

Mr. Dale Grotenhu is, our musicinstructor, is a native of CedarGrove, Wisconsin, a small townnear Sheboygan. He received hisschooltrrg there until his collegeyears began at Calvin. While at-tending Calvin, he wrote a CalvinALma Mater song which won theprize in a student contest. Dur inghis years there he also began com-posing music for the medium of con-cert 'band. He wrote "The Calvin-ite March" which includes the AlmaMater song. He gr-aduated in 1953with a music major.

Following his graduation fcomCalvin, Mr. Grotenhuls joined thearmed services. He was stationedin Fort Meade, Maryland, where hewas the' Chief Music Arranger forthe Beccnd Arrny Band. He alsoplayed the percussion instruments.ISix months before his discharge, hemarried Eleanor Veldman fromGrand Rapids. He and his wifethen lived in Washington D.C. un-til his discharge. They now havetwo sons who are four and two vearsold,

The following two years werespent in Lynden, Washington, wherehe taught in the Christian High.During his second year there, hetook the choir to Grand Rapids toattend the Midwest Choir Festival.The two years previous to his com-ing to Dordt were spent at UnityChristian High in Hudsonville,Michigan.

The past few years Mr. Gt-oten-hu ls has done extensive arrangingof chor-al music. He has also com-posed approximately eight choralnumbers among which is "God So'Loved the World", which our choirsang last year. At present he iscomposing a new Dordt Alma Matersong.

One hundred twenty-eight studentshave registered at Dor-dt for thefirst semester of the 1'95'9-60 schoolterm. Below is a breakdown of en-rollment statistics:

Fr-eshmen Sophomores34 2337 34

MenWomen

Total5771

71 57

Fresh.34352

128Soph.

31233

Teaher TrainingGeneral Course.Pre-Seminary Course

71 57By States: Iowa 62, Minnesota 35,

South Dakota 19, California 2 .Colo-r ado 2, New Jersey 1, iNew Mexi-tCO 1, North Dakota 1, Washington 1,Wisconsin 3, Alberta, Canada 1.

Boarding students 85, Home stu-dents 43,

The ratio of freshmen men andwomen shows noteworthy chancefrom the previous school year,when the freshman class was com-posed of 3{~ men and 59 women. Thetotal enrollment represents a de-crease of 11 from last year's totalof 139.

This year's choir at Dordt con-sists of fifty-five 'members. Withthe enthusiasm which prevails a-mong the members and the capabledirection of Mr. Grotenhuis, thechoir is sure to have a successfulyear.

Mr. Grotenhuis has organized amale j, horus which consists oftwenty-six men of neighboringtowns. This chorus is planning twoconcert seas-ons a year. The firstone is tentatively set for January.Their first rehearsals proved it to'be a promising organization.

Tickets Now On Sale InThe Office

Membership tickets for the an-nual concert series starting Novem-ber 9 are now on sale. H is believ-ed that this year's program will of-fer one of the best selections of tal-ent anywhere in the Tri-State Area,and it is undoubtedly the finestseries ever offered in Sioux County.

'Pianist Margaret Barthel opensthe concert series on November 9.The attractive young pianist haswon enthusiastic approval from allMidwestern audiences on three pre-vious tOUIS •

Margaret Barthel, pianist

At the age of five she began tostudy piano and .gave her first solorecital at the age 'of eight. At thir-teen she played with the 'DetroitSymphony. But unlike many youngprodigies, Margaret Bar-thel follow-ed these early successes by winningthe coveted Haumbur-g Award andseve-ral other similar awards. Herappearances with major orchestras

(Continued on page 4)

Page Two THE DORDT DIAMOND Friday, September '25, 1958

THE DORDT DIAMOND The Temper ofPublished fortnightly by :the Students of Dordt College. Sioux Cenler. lao

Editor: Peter Andringa; Assistant Editor: Marilyn NienHuis the TimesDepartmental Editors:

Temper of lhe Times Roxine BakerPoelry Elaine TeVeide Once again 'Our lives are filledOf Books and Men " Al Hoekstra with the hustle and bustle of studyDid You Know . Irma Dykstra along with our school activities. AndThe Sports Scene Donna Schul and Harvey B.lankespoor the world 'around us hurries on.

Reporters: Jim Verbrugge and John Addink As we all know .the steel strikeTypists: Theora Hoekstra, Dorothy Gorter, .Anila Kuperus, and has been on for over ten weeks and

Gertrude Kooima more than $550 million has beenFaculty Advisor: .. Mr. Peter P. De Boer los-t. Now the big question is: how

-much longer will it ast?

--EDITORIAL--A rather interesting thing happened at Dordt last week. Many

of its students spent a good deal. of time searching for Hezekiah16:9, and all of them were amazed and embarrassed to discoverthat Hezekiah is not one of the books of the Bible.

This incident, although very funny at the time, brings up avery serious question: "What's wrong with our educational sys-tern?" More specifically, "What's wrong with our Christian edu-cational system?"

Most of Dordt's students have gone to Christian grade schoolsand Christian high schools. Supposedly, the purpose of these"Christian" schools is to give a "Christian" education. Certainlythe fact that college students who have been in "Christian" schoolsfor 12 or 13 years. don't know the books of the Bible, is a good in-dication that Christian education has, at least partially, failed.

Now we come to the difficult part: why our schools have par-tially failed. There are several reasons. First of all, education isprimarily the responsibility of the parents. This is especially truein the area of religion. The parents promise, in the baptism oftheir children, to instruct them in the doctrines of the church. Butparents often find this task too complex. When this happens, theparents hire. teachers to do the work for them.

One of the types of teachers which the parents hire is theminister. It is the minister who is in charge of the catecheticaltraining of the children. Either the minister himself, or one ofthe elders of the church, is in charge of teaching the doctrines ofthe church to the boys and girls and the young people.

The parents also hire school teachers. These must teach thechildren how to read and write, how to add and subtract, and amultitude of other things. And these "hired" teachers must alsoteach the children about the Bible and about how we, as Calvin-ists, interpret the Bible.

Now that we have 'blamed the partial failure of Christian edu-cation on the parents, the church, 'and the schools, perhaps weshould also blame the student himself. It is a frightening possi-bility that our students don't want to learn of their Calvinisticheritage.

But enough of whose fault the partial failure is. Let's seewhat we can do about the failures of our educational system, The

(Continued on page 4)

The United States has put Van-guard No. HI into orbit and thushas completed their twelfth success-ful attempt of placing a rocket intoorbit.However, all of this has been over-shadowed by the arrival of Pre-mier -Nikita S. Khrushchev in theUnited 'States .at ,12:'21 P.M. Tues-day, September 15. His arr-ival wassuperceded by the Russian's shoot-ing a rocket to the moon. How wellthe Russians had that timed!Now that Khrushchev and his

family are here, what does he planto accomplish? Ils he here to Izckat the United States or ts he hereto "sell" himself to the Americans.His actions seem to make it quiteapparent that he is here to "sell"himself. So far everywhere he hasbeen taken, he has taken a quicklook at things and soon he has him-self engrossed in the people sur-rounding him. He posed. for hisfirst family picture before he cameto the United States and did the un-u~ual thing of. taking his family withhim. What 1S behind all of this?Khrushchev's life proves he knowsthe art of public relations. At Stal-in's funeral he was in the secondrow of 'mourners; now there is noone in. front of him. He accomplish-ed this with his personality andshrewd grasp of human nature. Andup to this time, aside from his fre-quent loss of temper, he has beenquite charming. Even though hehas received a quiet, curious wel-come, yet many who have heard himhave gained respect for him.

Khrushchev says the aim of hisvisit is to promote word peace andto prove this he has proposed totaldisarmament and then stated thatsince this is impossible we shouldfollow his plan of partial disarma-me~t. But .again, what is [reallybehtnd all tIns? Is he primarily in-.terested in world peace or are' thereot~er factors that are influencingthis proposal? Does he think that areduction in arms expenditures inthe United States will cause a majorpermanent disruption in our 'econ-omy, or does he understand that theUnited States has great potentialitiesfor expansion of our civilian econo-my? Does he think that his pro-

(Continued on page 3)

Friday, September 25, 1959 THE DORDT DIAMOND· Page Three

New Librarian AssistantsOne of Dordt's new librarian as-

sistants for this school term is Mrs.Don Plulm, more 'commonly knownas "Snooks." She and her husband,who plans to attend a barberfngschool in Sioux City beginning inOctober, make their residence herein Sioux Center. They are the par-ents of two children, :David andVerla, who are two and one yearsof age, respectively."Snooks" was born and raised in

Orange City and also attended gradeschool there. She went to WesternChristian High and also attendedthree summer school sessions 'at Cal-vin College. She taught school forone year at Bigeow, Minnesota, andtwo years at Sheldon.Mrs. Plu im works in our library

only in the morning from 8-12 eachday. We certainly hope than shewill enjoy her work in our spaciousnew library.

The other assistant in our libraryis Mrs. Cooper. .Her husband is thesixth grade teacher at Sioux Cen-ter Christian School. They are theparents of four children, Ruth,George, David and Thomas, whoseages are eight, seven, five, and twoyears. The Coopers are members ofthe First Christian Reformed Church.Mrs. Cooper was born and raised

in New Jersey. She attended bothgrade school and high school in herhome state and also attended college[or two years in New York. Mrs.-Cooper did some secretarial workbefore their marriage.Mlrs. Cooper is in the library only

in the afternoon each day from oneto fife. W,e hope that she will en-joy her work in our new library.

Temper of the Times, cont.posal will put the United States onthe spot before world opinion inorder to donee us to go further thansome of our experts think is safe?Besides all this, why is it that rightafter he leaves the U.S. he is goingto 'Red China? Can he be sincereboth places?Aside from this, we all know that

Khrushchev will visit the great Mid-west, namely the state of Iowa. Wehope that he is thoroughly impress-ed with it along with its people.What one thinks of Khrushchev

is up to him, but perhaps people'sgeneral opinion is pretty well sum-med up in the words of an inmateat the South Carolina 'Penitentiarywho said, "It is okay for him to'come and talk peace, but keep aneye on him."What the outcome of Khrushchev's

visit will be we do not know, butit is up to each of us to show tohim hat the United States is aChristian nation. And we all 'knowthis is much m'ore impressive thanexplosions of atomic bombs. r.b.

Of Books and Men II DOd Y K!-- ---J I ou now •••The purpose of this column is to

introduce to its readers articles andbooks that may be found in theDordt Colleg.e library. It is thefurther intention that those whotread this column will be aroused toa keen interest in the books andarticles to be found in the libraryand that they will be induced toread these articles and books intro-duced and also to be stimulated tofurthe-r reading. Bearing thesethings in mind I would then like tointroduce some current writings.Soviet Premier Khrushchev is

presently receiving much publicitydue to his visit in our countr-y. Manypeople have mixed emotions re-garding this man. Vice-PresidentNixon has recently 'Visited The U.S.is.R. and no doubt the Soviets receiv-ed him with mixed emotions. In theSeptember 1, 1959, issue of VitalSpeeches there are two speeches de-livered by Vlce-President 'Nixonduring his recent visit to the U.S.S.R. As we follow the current newsit would -be of great interest to con~.trast the visits of the two men.The first of the two speeches was

delivered on the occasion of the op-ening of the American National Ex-hibition in Moscow on July 24, 1959.At this 'exhibition Nixon enumerat-ed some of the items which contrib-ute to the Amer-ican high standardof living. He then asks a questionand provides an answer."Why do I cite these figures? Not

because they indicate that .the Am-erican people have more automo-biles, T.V. sets, or houses than thepeople of Russia."In fairness we must a-ecognize

that 'Our country dndustr ial.ized soon-er than the Soviet Union. And theAmericans 'are happy to note thatMr. Khrushchev has set a goal forthe Soviet economy of catching upin the production of consumergoods."The visit of Khruschev is also

concerned with the furtherance ofpeace between our two countries.Nixon was also ccncerried with thisduring his visit. He stated that,"There is nothing we want fromany other people except the rightto live in peace and friendship withthem." However, we cannot fullyagree with Nixon when he statesthat, "The peace . . . the wor-ldneeds is not the peace of surrenderbut the peace of justice, not peaceby ultimatum but peace by negotia-tion." This is in essence true butit is also humanistic. W,e wouldprefer to go a bit further as Calvin-ists and add that this wo-rld needsthe peace of Christianity in '3 nar-row sense.In another speech explaining the

policies of the American govern-

that Dordt College was once a rninikfarm . . . stinky way to start thiscolumn, isn't it?

* * * * •that this is the fifth year of exis-tence 'Of our Alma Mater ... ? Dordtbegan with an 'enrollment of thirty-six students and five Instructors-,-that's a r-atio of about seven toone . . . wouldn't it be nice to ,getthat personal attention now?

* * * * *that the first A Cappella Choir wasmade up of the entire student bodyexcept one-s-a monotone?

* * * * *that the large red rock on the cam-pus is quite historical . . . ? it wasfound buried in a sandp it at OrangeCity . . . then it was taken to afarm west of Hull where it remain-ed for about twenty years . . . ittook two of the Cuperus Bros. cater-pillars to bring the five tone rockto Dordt,

>I< * * * *that the floor supports in the boomtruck snapped as they tried to resetthe rock in place?

>l< * >l< * *that the Class of 1,959 purchased abronze plaque which is to be placedon the rock . . . ? it is inscribed"DORDT COLLEGE ESTABtLlSHED1955."

* >I< >I< >I< *that it is difficult to drill holes in arock . . . the contractor has alr-eadybroken three bits trying to put theplaque in place?

* >I< >l< >I< *that this column is going to be inevery issue of the iDrAMOND ... ?Ideas and newsbits will be appre-ciated. i. d.

ment, Vice ....President Nixon: answer-ed this question: "What are yourimpressions of this country and itspeople?" Nixon noted some of thethings that the Soviet and Ameri-can people have in common. Onceagain the prob lem of world peacecame into direct focus and a majorportion of the speech was devotedto that subject. He tried to removesome glaring 'misconceptions and.also provided some practical sug-gestions which in themselves werenot new.I am sure that Vice-President Nix-

on is convinced that 'Communismhas changed only its methods andnot its objectives. He noted that:"Khrushchev predicted that ourgrandchildren would live undercommunism." Nixon's answer was:"I do not say that your grandchil-dren will live under capitalism."

a. h.

Page Four THE DORDT DIAMOND Friday, September 25, 1958

-The Sports Scene

Well, now that everyone has fin-ally arranged them- scrambled sched-ules, and emerged relatively un-scathed from the orientation pro-cedures and tests, we lean turn ourattention to some of the Iigherthings in life . . . such as sports.(What else is there?) I see that M'T.Sfoerdsma is really on the !ball thisyear. A softball team and a physi-cal education schedule already! Iwonder what innovations this yearwill bring. I imagine that first offwill be the usual thing-calisthenics-c-defined by Webster as "athleticexercises; the art of developing bod-ily strength and gracefulness by suchexercises.' Bet you never thoughttouching your toes was an art, didyou? And 'I'll admit, the morningafter that first session, I didn't feelvery artful 'either. Some humoristhas called exercise the means thatends our shapes. Well, maybe.I heard some people groan when

they r-ead the phys. ed. announce-ment, but I don't think there is causefor- that . . . yet. I suppose' thereare some people who dislike phyai-cal exertion, but they should befew 'and far between and after beingin college awhile, they should benon-existent. Why? 'Exercise andrecreatton are an all-important partof a liberal education from a physi-cal point of view and a psychologf-cal one as well. If your body isn'tin good condition, your mind won'tfunction properly and your mentalattitude towards your school workand your associates won't be up topar. As a result, you probably won'tlike Dordt Col ltge, 'and we justcouldn't allow that to happen. So,you take physical education.

But this is the Sports Scene, notthe phys. ed. forum, so on to thenational news. Have you noticedthat the Americans didn't do toowell in the tennis matches up inNew York? But the U.S. did makea fine showing in the Pan-AmericanGames in Chicago this summer. Allexcept four of more than twentygold first-place medals were wonby the Amer-ican contestants. Anda great improvement was shown inthe sports events in which the Rus-sians outshone us last time. Couldthis be a ray of hope for the 1960Olympics? Let's hope so.On the professional sports scene,

all good baseball fans at-e purchas-ing their tickets to the World Series(I'll pick the White Box), and soonboth professional football and bas-ketball will be in the limelight.Behind all-American Billy's Can-

non's seventeen yard touch-downrun, the national champions, Louis-iana State, crushed a stubborn Riceteam 26-3. L.S.U. trailed Rice .dur-

ing the first half but 'after the inter-mission, the Tigers took commandand turned the game into a nearrout.Iowa, the defending !Big Ten

champions, opens its season Satur-day at Cal ifor-nia. The Hawkeyesquad is sparkling with sophomores.Bob Jeter, number one left halfback,has seen limited action; however,he is expected to be in action soon.The Hawkeyes are predicted to betough again this season and couldbe contenders for another Big Tentitle. d.s. & nb.

Concert Series, continued ...'on numerous concert stages, inaddition to her high fidelity record-ings, have won her a host of admir-ers.Appearing next, on January 11,

is the Vienna Academy Chorus, re-turning for its fifth consecutive sold-out American tour. Under the di-rection of Thomas Christian David,this chorus of twelve male and fe-male voices embraces the greatchoral literature of the world. Fav-orite music of the great iViennesecomposers and .a rousing 'Collectionof Tyrolean folk music, each pre-sented in appropriate costume, high-lights this «Wonderful Evening ofSong."This diversified and colorful en-

semble has earned an enviable rep-utation throughout the Europeancontinent, in South America, theUnited Sates, and Canada. Duringthe forthcoming season, [,allowinga number of engagements in No-rthAmerica, the chorus will make itsdebut tour in Japan. Steeped inthe tradition of Old Austria, theVienna Academy Chorus with itsebullient spirit, charm, and finemusicianship, presents concerts de-signed to delight.

On Januaory 28, David Davis,v.iol.inst, brings to his audience hiswork, a wealth of -tonal effects,played with taste and inner under-

David Davis, violinist

standing.Since his successful New York

Town Hall debut in 19,54, DavidDavis has toured in the UnitedStates, Canada, and Europe, both inrecital and as soloist with majororchestras.He has been acclaimed as one of

the most outstanding virtuosos ofthe younger generation. (He playsone of the most valuable violins inexistence, the Leopold Auer Stradi-varius, dated 1690. Iln short, he isa young ar tist with a bright future.

Highlight of the season, and as a'climax to the series, the Indianap-olis Symphony Orchestra will ap-pear on March 29. Ranked amongthe top ten orchestras of the nation,the orchestra is under the leader-ship of Izler Solomon, who has beencalled "the greatest conducting tal-ent of his age" by the ChristianScience Monitor.The orchestra was founded by

'Ferdinand Schaefer in 193D and wasconducted by Fabier Sevitzky from1937 to 1955. Young American'conductor Izler- Solomon was signedas permanent conductor in 1956.

Buy your tickets fOT the 1959-60Concert _Series now. The ticketsar-e on sale at the offbce for $3, stu-dent admission.

Editorial, continued'main if not the only solution is thatour schools must be "tougher."Things easily learned are easilyforgotten. Repetition is essentialto a good education. The gradeschool teacher who informs the stu-dents that they should know thebooks of the Bible in two weeks.can be sure that the students willnot study the books of the Bible un-til the day before the two weeksare up. And if, after the two weeks·are up, she gives the students a teston the books of the Bible and thendoes not mention them again, thepupils are almost certain to forgetthem.Leonard Covello, an Italian immi-

grant, author of The Heart Is TheTeacher. describes his educationsomewhat differently than the man-ner in which Americans can describetheirs. The principle of educationin the schools which Italian immi-grants attended in the early 1900'swas thaf har-d work was the key toeducation. Mr. Covello says thatwhen he was in grade school thetea-cher would occasionally hit thestudents over their hands with apiece of hard wood as an applica-tion of this principle.Perhaps we need something like

this in our educational methods. Wemust not "baby" our students somuch. It is perhaps only by being"tough" on our children that we canbe sure that they will believe thethings which we believe to be thetruth. p. a.