Whoopi Goldberg, the EGOT-winning actress and comedian, delivered a deeply personal commencement address at SCAD in 2011. She spoke about growing up dyslexic and not learning to read until age 15, explaining how the arts gave her a voice when traditional academics could not. In this passage, Goldberg made an impassioned defense of arts education at a time when many schools were cutting their programs. Drawing from her own experience of being placed in the 'slow class' as a child, she argued that the arts are not luxuries but necessities — essential tools of communication for those who think and express themselves differently. Her blunt declaration that cutting off the arts makes us 'more than barbarians' carried special weight coming from someone who overcame learning disabilities to become one of the most accomplished entertainers in history.