Analysis Of Rick Lavoie's FAT City

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Recommended: Effective strategies that general education teachers can use while teaching students with severe disabilities

The first time I watched Rick Lavoie’s FAT City, during one of my undergraduate courses two years ago, I slept through almost the entire film. As an individual whose heart was set on entering a helping profession, and not on becoming a teacher, I did not find the concepts discussed in this thirty-year old documentary relevant. Now I realize just how significant the topics he discussed actually are to a school counselor-in-the-making.
Lavoie transforms a panel of primarily general education teachers, parents, and school faculty members into a room full of students with learning disabilities. He uses techniques such as fast-paced interrogation, anxiety-provoking activities, cognitive manipulation, and rhetorical questioning to create nearly impossible learning situations for any learner. As a typical learner, I had never …show more content…

Is my ego coming into play, or do I truly want him to challenge himself?”
• “Am I asking him to look me in the eye to show me the respect I deserve, or do I truly want my student to gain the adequate social skills to interact with others?”
These are examples of where an abuse of the hierarchical relationship between a counselor and student may come into play, and are the exact areas in which I hope to distance myself from in my practice. The idea that every conversation I have should end with the other party feeling empowered is one that really resonates with me, and a goal I will continue to strive towards.
When I watched FAT City the second time around, I made sure to stay awake! I paid close attention to the genius of Rick Lavoie’s experiment. He manipulated the operation in a way that enabled every participant, spectator, and at-home audience to identify with a student with learning disabilities, which is the most effective way to empathize and improve one’s interactions with students with learning

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