"I Can't Sing, I Can't Draw, I Can't Dance": Ascribed Inability and the Problem of Reversibility in Arts Education

“Ascribed inability” is proposed to describe situations in which an authorised evaluator’s judgement that a child lacks an artistic ability is internalised and may shape participation long after the underlying ability has ceased to be assessed. This conceptual article integrates research on music education, assessment validity, music anthropology, shame psychology and cultural rights. Singing receives particular attention because studies document subgroups in which negative musical self-identification is disproportionate to measured ability. Drawing on Turino’s distinction between participatory and presentational music-making, the article hypothesises that some early, binary and socially visible assessment practices may facilitate the formation of durable categories of inability. Shame and the expert blind spot are examined as possible mechanisms. A second central concept is reversibility: the possibility of leaving or revising an ascribed category. Four forms are distinguished – behavioural exit, self-categorical exit, socially ratified exit and disconfirmation of the original ability judgement. The article argues that the effects of arts education should therefore be assessed not only through benefits among current participants but also through possible early exclusion and long-term non-participation. This preprint is the submitted version and has not been peer-reviewed. Submitted to Letonica, special issue “Art as an Agent of Change: Cultural Literacy for Societal Resilience” (Rīga Stradiņš University / CLiViE).