OLATHE, KS — Recently a KSHB 41 viewer tagged me in a Facebook video from Olathe Public Schools, showcasing a new choir class created specifically for students with special needs.
The viewer said I should do a feature, because this class highlights excellence in teaching. And after visiting the class, and seeing it for myself, I wholeheartedly agree.
“I think there’s a place for everybody to sing in this school,” Dr. Ryan Olsen told me, as we sat on the choir risers in his classroom. Olsen is the choir director at Olathe West High School.
Observing this class felt like watching a question being asked and answered: what does finding your voice look and sound like?
“Finding a way to connect with all of our students is important for me,” Olsen told me. “And it looks different for every kid.”
Different. For every kid. That's why this class exists.
"We have some of the students that came into the class with varying ranges of verbal ability,” Olsen explained. “And a couple of the students have really started to become more verbal in class, singing out more.”
"I'll hear from their teachers later in the day, that they'll be walking through line, and we sing a song about fruits, and they'll be like, ‘Banana, banana.’"
It’s clear during the class that Olsen wants these students to have everything they need to be heard.
“I taught them the alma mater because I wanted them to be able to come to our pep assemblies, and sing along with our school song, and be part of the school,” Olsen told me.
The students use small instruments, including tambourines, to help with motor skills.
The music is printed on larger sheets of paper, because, Olsen told me, “we have some students who have visual impairments."
Because why should the search for a voice be any different for these young people? Olsen understands that concern better than most.
"My brother was a special needs student, he was born with severe brain damage," he told me. “And so, working with this group of students has just been important for me.”
"This class fills my bucket."
Dr. Olsen told me that he also has choir students who are interested in a career in teaching, or even music therapy, and this class is helping with their education as well.
This is only the first year of the class, but Olsen hopes to continue it next year as well.
