"There have been studies that clearly state that children who are exposed to arts education at a young age will in fact do markedly better in their SAT tests"
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Hamlisch is doing something slyly pragmatic here: he sells the arts by borrowing the language of metrics. A composer who built a career on emotional immediacy and mass appeal suddenly reaches for studies, clarity, and the SAT - the ultimate American yardstick for sorting kids. It reads less like an aesthetic argument than a strategic translation, as if he knows that in budget meetings and anxious-parent culture, “beauty” loses to “scores.”
The intent is defensive and political. Arts education is perpetually first on the chopping block, framed as enrichment rather than infrastructure. By tying music and theater to test performance, Hamlisch smuggles the arts into the same moral category as math tutoring: not a luxury, but an investment. The phrase “will in fact” carries a faint exasperation, a musician’s insistence that this isn’t wishful thinking or romantic ideology; it’s evidence, so stop treating it like a hobby.
The subtext is also a quiet indictment of what we’ve decided counts as learning. If the only way to justify creative training is to promise higher SATs, then the conversation has already conceded too much to a culture obsessed with measurable outputs. Hamlisch plays along because he wants the programs to survive - but the bargain is bittersweet. The arts are positioned as a means to an end, even as his life’s work argues they are part of the end: a way of thinking, feeling, and paying attention that can’t be fully captured by a standardized test.
The intent is defensive and political. Arts education is perpetually first on the chopping block, framed as enrichment rather than infrastructure. By tying music and theater to test performance, Hamlisch smuggles the arts into the same moral category as math tutoring: not a luxury, but an investment. The phrase “will in fact” carries a faint exasperation, a musician’s insistence that this isn’t wishful thinking or romantic ideology; it’s evidence, so stop treating it like a hobby.
The subtext is also a quiet indictment of what we’ve decided counts as learning. If the only way to justify creative training is to promise higher SATs, then the conversation has already conceded too much to a culture obsessed with measurable outputs. Hamlisch plays along because he wants the programs to survive - but the bargain is bittersweet. The arts are positioned as a means to an end, even as his life’s work argues they are part of the end: a way of thinking, feeling, and paying attention that can’t be fully captured by a standardized test.
Quote Details
| Topic | Learning |
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