It's sad when the programs making a surprising difference in our public schools end before we ever hear about them, and before it's too late to help them out. Just last week, a unique program filled the halls of Sunrise Acres Elementary school with violin music. Called the Sunrise Acres Strings, it taught children through the Suzuki method, which holds that children can learn music as well as they can learn language; that what we perceive as musical talent can actually be taught. The fact that children at this transient, at-risk school paid only $5 a month and received two lessons per week plus the use of a violin added to its impressive cultural imprint.
It's a program that had young children playing complex music with ease, says Hal Weller, music director for the Las Vegas Philharmonic. Weller was instrumental in establishing the program at Sunrise Acres. He explains some of the program basics. "It begins with the basic building blocks and goes from there. Through a whole very carefully programmed sequence of building blocks of learning progressively until at an amazingly early age these Suzuki students are playing extremely difficult music—music that at one time was thought to be only for the very talented in the conservatory candidate."
But the program was dependent on a three-year grant, which ran out this year. And, while most of those involved with the Sunrise Acres Strings assumed that administration would find the funds to extend the program, some everyday distractions arose. Administration changed. The former principal, one of the program's biggest advocates, was replaced with a new principal on May 17. By the first of June, the program's grant had ended. "By the time I found out about it," admits principal Elena Villa, "the books were closed on it."
So Sunrise Acres is left with quiet halls and violin-free kids, and one less violin instructor. Melanie Schiemer, the Suzuki teacher, actually learned about its demise through one of her students. "A little child called me, and she was crying, and she got a letter I guess from school saying they needed to turn in their violins on June 1, and she wanted to know what was going on. She was very upset," says Schiemer, who, since her position was eliminated, no longer works at the school.
Griselda Hinojosa has felt a large brunt of the impact. She has three kids who were in the strings program, plus a nephew and a sister-in-law. "They're upset," she says. "Yesterday they asked Melanie why she didn't come to get them for a class. That they'd been waiting for her."
Thirty students were in the program, until last week. Thirty kids who were learning about something they may not ordinarily be exposed to, or be able to afford. It gave them a sense of community, confidence and goals. Goals like college and culture, which Schiemer says may not have been there prior to the violin lessons.
"I think the children can see outside of themselves, and they can see outside of their neighborhood. And some of these kids don't go past the end of their block, let alone college," says Schiemer. "And I think it's providing them an opportunity to see further, that there is more out there and they can go get it."
It was the only program of its kind in a Clark County public school. And while Principal Villa says she'll search for the money, the grants necessary to get it going again, she's not entirely confident.
"I can't make any promises," she says.