March 11, 2000
Dear Editor:
The American Society for Ethics in
Education (ASEE) would like to thank all of the fine members of the
community who attended our first presentation on the need to
increase access to the music education program for children in the
Saddleback Valley Unified School District. As ASEE has noted
previously, there appears to be widespread denial of access to
Saddleback Valley USD’s already existing (but minimal) program:
this denial appears to especially affect those students who have
been identified with special needs and/or learning disabilities. In
light of all of the current research regarding the important role
that a comprehensive education in music plays in brain development,
this is nothing less than a moral outrage. A recent article in the Los
Angeles Times (Scientists Map Pattern of Growth in Young
Brains, March 8, 2000, front page) states that, "educators
have long known that intellectual abilities in language, music, and
mathematics must be developed before puberty." Of considerable
note is the research being conducted by neurologist, Dr. Gordon Shaw
from the University of California, Irvine. In his recent book,
"Keeping Mozart in Mind" (Academic Press, copyright 2000),
Dr. Shaw notes that his research has "shown that disadvantaged
second graders can rapidly learn ratios and proportional math using
S.T.A.R. [a specially developed computer program] but that piano
training gives an additional significant boost over children in a
control group. This is a big deal!" (Shaw, pg. 15.
Emphasis was not added.)
Closer scrutiny of the music education
program within the Saddleback Valley Unified School District
provides something that is very disturbing. Another recent article
in the Los Angeles Times, Creative Music Starts in Schools
(March 6, 2000, pg. F3) notes that, "As our economy booms and
school budgets slowly recover from the effects of serious budget
cuts that began years ago, music education is making a comeback. But
for the majority of schools, these programs are incomplete and
poorly funded. Once a week lessons taught by music teachers who have
no classrooms and are forced to drag their supplies from class to
class on portable carts are, to paraphrase Emerson, ‘an apology
for the real thing.’" Unfortunately, this statement describes
the "music program" that currently exists within the
Saddleback Valley Unified School District.
Getting back to the issue of denying access
to portions of the already minimal program offered by SVUSD to
students with learning disabilities, it is known that Susan
Navarro-Sims, principal of Cielo Vista Elementary School (a
"California Distinguished School") has sent out notices
(form letters) to parents of students at her school on at least
three occasions. In one such case, it is known that a student, who
had just been identified by the school’s psychologist, Ms. Suzanne
Nielsen, as exhibiting signs of ADD. Ms. Neilsen stated that
"psychometrically, [the student] did present as a child with a
likely attention disorder...Clinical observation during testing and
in the classroom as was well as scores on behavior rating scales
supports the impression of attention disorder [ADD]." (This
information is being used, by ASEE, with the permission of the child’s
parents.) Furthermore, it is also known that this child would NOT
been have tested by the school, had the parent not insisted upon
such testing in the first place. Further extensive evaluation by the
child’s doctors confirmed the diagnosis of ADD. Just one week
after the school had noted this child’s apparent learning
disorder, Ms. Navarro Sims issued her first letter (April 12, 1999)
stating that the child had been declared ineligible "to
participate in extracurricular activities (chorus, instrumental
music, after school performances)." When Ms. Navarro-Sims then
sent this letter a second time (November 29, 1999), the parent of
the above student filed a complaint against Ms. Navarro-Sims and the
SBVUSD with the United States Department of Education, Office for
Civil Rights (OCR). SBVUSD then claimed that they had found "an
error" in the form letter they were using.
Other atrocities suffered at the hands of
SBVUSD administrators and teachers on this student include:
1. Ms. Navarro-Sims, disclosed, WITHOUT
parental permission, confidential information from the student’s
file to an outside agency (in direct violation of the California
Education Code).
2. In December of 1999, this child was
moved to the BACK of the classroom - which, as any competent
educator should know, is the absolute worse possible place for
an ADD child to sit. It wasn’t until SBVUSD learned of the
complaint file with OCR, that the child was finally moved to the
front of the class.
3. It has just been learned that this
child’s teacher, apparently, has a habit of answering personal
phone calls, on her cell phone, during classroom instruction
time.
As some of these (and other) problems
appear to be widespread within SBVUSD, the ASEE is now seeking
parents of other children within the Saddleback Valley USD to come
forward and possibly join in a class-action lawsuit against SBVUSD.
Many of these issues will be discussed at the next public
information meeting now being planned by ASEE. For further
information, please visit ASEE’s web site at:
http://www.edethics.org to examine this, and other educational
horrors.
Respectfully,
******************, Executive Director
American Society for Ethics In Education
(Mr. ********** has served as President of
the California Music Educators Association - Southern Section, on
the National Board of Trustees of the American Orff-Schulwerk
Association [the largest general music education association in the
nation], and has been an instructor for the Institute on the Study
of the Multiple Intelligences, at the University of California,
Riverside since 1991.)
