Shawnee Mission North graduate David Mehnert ('83) appears tonight (8/1) as part of a story on musical savants on 60 Minutes. David is the founder of the Savant Academy, a non-profit organization working with the rapidly growing community of families who have a family member with the condition. A Savant is someone who has an amazing ability that co-exists with some kind of cognitive disability. There are artistic, mathematical, and musical savants, among others. Dustin Hoffman played a savant in Rain Man.
In June, Kodi Lee, a young musical savant whom David teaches, played a concert in Kansas City as part of the Focus Families convention. I attended the show and I found it most interesting. In addition to Kodi's musical talents, the audience consisted of many families with children who might be musical savants. Autism and many other birth defects are on the rise, but as David explains, some disabilities can actually mask miraculous talents. And these talents can be nurtured and developed, if they are noticed early on.
“60 Minutes” filmed 15 months ago, and just missed being able to tell the story about how a new form of blindness, Optic Nerve Hypoplasia (ONH), disposes to musical savant abilities in other children. I've now discovered 19 savants with the diagnosis."
After the Kodi Lee concert, as David and I were chatting, a family from Iowa came forward. Their daughter, they said, liked to play the piano. David told me later he thinks she may also be an ONH savant. It's a fascinating phenomena with more questions than answers, but one of the real benefits of Mehnert's academy is helping families who have an ONH kid discover their love for music. In many cases, these disabled kids start making progress in other areas of their lives (with motor skills and speech) after they get a keyboard to play with. Find out how you can help.
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We just wanted to clarify a comment made in the blog: When you mention that David Mehnert teaches Kodi, that is actually a false statement. Kodi discovered music and his passion for song, performing and musical expression from within himself. Kodi had been performing for about a year before David even came into his life. He motives himself every day to better his abilities and all that he knows as of today - is self taught. David merely jammed with Kodi and pointed out to Kodi the name of the notes he was playing - since Kodi has never had any formal training. He knew what the notes were, but he just couldn't label them. With Kodi's photographic memory, this took only a few minutes to accomplish. What David realized was that Kodi already "had it" and that all he could do is introduce new music to Kodi's repertoire.
Best regards.
Kodi's parents - Eric and Tina Lee.
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