Students in low-income school districts around New York will be given the chance of a lifetime in early 2016: they will be seeing the continually sold-out production of “Hamilton” for the #Ham4Ham price of only $10.
How is this possible, you might ask? According to Playbill.com, producer Jeffrey Seller and the Rockefeller Foundation announced Tuesday that the foundation will be providing the city with a $1.46 million grant so that 20,000 11th grade students in low-income areas will have the opportunity to see the show.
“Hamilton” is a musical based on the biography of the same name by Ron Chernow. The show, written and composed by Lin-Manuel Miranda, has taken Broadway by storm with its entirely rap and hip-hop based score that amounts to three hours of pure American history. But what makes Miranda’s piece so significant isn’t that it is a summary of Hamilton’s life, but rather that a vast majority of characters who have graced the pages of our history books are played by actors of color. Miranda, who also plays Hamilton, is of Puerto Rican descent. Christopher Jackson and Leslie Odom, Jr., both black actors, play George Washington and Aaron Burr, respectively. And three actresses of multiple different descents play the famed Schuyler sisters, two of who were Hamilton’s love interests and one of who became his wife.
Certainly, this performance is a fantastic way to drive students down different avenues of learning. Students who have never had experience with the arts can find a place of representation and feel a sense of importance. Even more significantly, The Huffington Post reported in 2014 that students who participated in a “four-year arts integration program” at Public Middle School 223 in the Bronx — “the lowest income district in all of New York” — showed “an 8 percent improvement in language arts scores, a 9 percent improvement in math scores and less absenteeism.”
Experiences like this always stick with us for life. We still remember the lyrics to that song we sang in the third grade play, and we still remember that production of “A Christmas Carol” we saw freshman year of high school. Deadline reported that Seller, Miranda and other foundation and city officials also hope to integrate the show into classroom studies by creating a “Hamilton Study and Performance Guide.” The guide will consist of printed classroom materials and an online portal where students can develop and produce their own original art, such as music and stories. Miranda called the program a “dream come true” at a press conference Tuesday, Deadline reported.
Our success in and love for history classes is often solely dependent upon the teachers we have had. Many of us have a love for history that was squandered by a teacher who put less than his or her all into teaching the class. Even more significantly, many students have never discovered their love for history because their teachers haven’t given them a reason to. But this initiative can spark a love of history in students who wouldn’t usually find the will to appreciate the subject. According to Deadline, Miranda, his team and the foundation hope that Hamilton’s story will inspire the kids and give them a new perspective on history, and their hope isn’t far-fetched.
But perhaps even more importantly, the chance to see this performance will also give students the opportunity to experience the arts in a way most of them never have before. According to The New York Times and a 2014 New York comptroller’s report, many public schools in the five boroughs “don’t offer any kinds of arts education” and “the lack of arts instruction disproportionately affects low-income neighborhoods.” The data shows that arts education is the first program to be cut when “money is tight,” and that “more than 42 percent of the schools that do not have state-certified arts teachers are clustered” in areas like the South Bronx and Brooklyn.
In many cases, low-income students are taught to work toward high paying jobs that will provide money and a way out of the hole they feel they are currently in. Students from high-income backgrounds, however, are often taught that no matter what they study, they have the chance to experience different potential careers. While this is certainly not true for all students — there are of course some students who experience the direct opposite of these instances — perhaps “Hamilton” can increase a love for arts and humanities, which can in turn open new doors.
Realistically, “Hamilton” will be most students’ first theatre experience. And according to Playbill, many of these students are first or second-generation Americans, just as Hamilton was. Perhaps students will see themselves in the story of Hamilton. An orphaned immigrant, Hamilton worked his entire life to create a legacy for himself by forging “a million things” he hadn’t done, as Miranda’s lyrics croon. The hip-hop score certainly doesn’t hurt, as it will inevitably appeal to kids who don’t have an inherent love for musical theatre.
But the presentation of a grant like this begs the question: should the money be placed into more permanent spheres, such as the hiring of arts educators or the implementation of after school arts programs?
Arguably, this grant is a stepping-stone to the more permanent solution. Of course, we could always hire plenty of people in permanent teaching roles with this cash, but the experience just wouldn’t be the same. Many of these low-income students are robbed of doing influential and, for lack of a better term, cool activities just because the money can be invested elsewhere. This has the potential to be one of the most formative experiences of a student’s life — this one-time chance can easily change them. You truly never know who will be changed by something new. So, even if a more permanent solution seems more practical, this grant provides the chance to positively affect a huge number of students.
According to a study by Education Week, students who are exposed to art forms such as theatre are more likely to have an increased cultural capital, which will make them more successful in the future. Exposure to the arts influences levels of tolerance and empathy, boosts critical thinking and improves our ability to observe the world.
The goal of education should be to influence kids to take their interests outside of the classroom and provide the chance for them be inspired as individuals. If even one student in the audience at “Hamilton” is inspired to try something new or to change their life, then the grant can undoubtedly be considered successful. Let’s give students the chance to rise up, just as Miranda imagines Hamilton to have done.
