A Critical Review of How Difficult Can This Be? The F.A.T. (Frustration Anxiety Tension) City Workshop by Richard D. Lavoie, Director of Eagle Hill School Outreach Program – Greenwich, Connecticut
Sara McManus
School of Education, University of Northern British Columbia
EDUC 3336: Inclusive Education
Melanie Baerg, M.Ed. – Lecturer
July 25, 2022
Richard Lavoie begins his introduction to the F.A.T. City Workshop with what would have sounded like a strong statistic of “six to ten percent of the children in the United States today suffer from learning disabilities” (Rosen et al., 1996, 0:51). However, today, not only is the statistic inapplicable, the language of a child suffering from a disability is as well. Research in the United States from the National Center for Learning Disabilities that was published in 2017 shows that these numbers are much greater now and states that there are “current challenges and opportunities facing the 1 in 5 children who have learning and attention issues such as dyslexia and ADHD” (NCLD, 2017). The National Centre for Learning Disabilities describes that “learning and attention issues are brain-based difficulties in reading, writing, math, organization, focus, listening comprehension, social skills, motor skills or a combination of these. Learning and attention issues are not the result of low intelligence, poor vision or hearing, or lack of access to quality instruction” (NCLD, Snapshot, 2020). Although the framework Lavoie uses for a child with a learning disability or exceptionality may be like today’s language, there is an abundance of terminology that is no longer acceptable in society. Throughout the workshop, he uses disability-first language, beginning by classifying “learning disabled children” as children who are not functioning as they should be but are 1) not mentally impaired or retarded; 2) do not have primary emotional disturbances; 3) have not been given the opportunities to learn, and 4) do not have a modality deficit such as being deaf or blind (1:07-1:32).
Lavoie asks that his workshop attendees “walk for a mile in the shoes” of children with learning disabilities through a simulation activity meant to invoke feelings of “frustration, anxiety, and tension” that are felt by these children through his biased teaching strategies built on the belief that “LD means lazy and dumb” (2:17-3:28). Simulation is a teaching technique that can be very powerful. Having lived experience with it myself in my scouting training can create sincere empathy and form new pathways of understanding. I wonder where this workshop recording fits in the timeline of special education reform. Were Lavoie and the producers of this workshop breaking ground when this aired on public television in 1996? Despite his language, he seems to have some excellent insights and teachings that are still relevant today. Some of these would be that sarcasm creates victims (4:30); anxiety affects performance (5:11); teachers make the environment of what is acceptable behaviour, “I don’t know,” and “volunteer” examples (5:50, 16:10); forcing students to look at you doesn’t make any sense (8:27); students process information at different rates (9:56); kids need direct instruction (27:15); students may not know what they did wrong and perceived stimulus (28:12, 31:20); sometimes the most incredible gift can be the gift of time (43:56); object identification is not dictated by spatial orientation – alphabet letters break that rule (47:02), and using rhetorical questions serves no purpose (51:20).
The workshop activity Lavoie gave the participants that helped me better understand what it is like to live with a learning disability was the picture of the cow. I found it interesting to listen to his perspectives on motivation versus perception. Lavoie said, “you can all see it, but you can’t bring meaning to it until I teach you what it is (20:53)… What the LD child needs is a teacher… to give him direct instruction” (21:02). Watching the video for a second time a week later, I cannot unsee the cow, and I cannot fathom how my brain did not see it in the first place, but I know I did not. Lavoie hit it home for me when he said, “all I did was give you direct instruction… but what they need is trained, experienced teachers” (22:22). He goes on to say, “…the real experience of learning disabilities is being the only person who can’t do it” (23:05).
The activity presented at the fifty-three-minute mark was dedicated to the difference between auditory and visual learners. After the attendees read the passage, Lavoie read it out loud to them. He argues that some students with learning disabilities will only be able to understand materials by hearing the words rather than reading them because until they receive auditory input, it would not make any sense. This contrasts with current scientific thinking, which supports Scarborough’s Rope and the Simple View of Reading which says that Reading Comprehension is the product of Decoding and Language Comprehension. In addition to the fact that deaf people can have excellent reading comprehension, cognitive science has shown us that reading uses multiple parts of the brain, and although auditory components are extremely important to phonemic awareness and development, they do not stand alone in the process of decoding, and it is only one component of many parts. Using the first brief passage as an example, “Once upon a time” was written, “Won supporter dime” (54:53), it becomes evident in my opinion that the attendees of the workshop were struggling to understand what they were reading because the lexical and phrasal semantics created an incomprehensible sentence outside of the norms of prescriptive grammar. However, when the passage was read aloud to them with a purposeful pace and rhythm, the auditory version allowed for syntactic awareness, which enabled the attendees to recognize and interpret the word combinations.
References
National Centre for Learning Disabilities. (2020, March 7). Snapshot of Learning and Attention Issues in the U.S. 1-in-5 Snapshot. [Document]. Retrieved July 22, 2022, from https://ncld.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/1-in-5-Snapshot.Fin_.03142017.pdf
National Centre of Learning Disabilities. (2017, February 1). Our Research – The State of LD: Introduction. [Website]. Retrieved July 22, 2022, from https://www.ncld.org/research/state-of-learning-disabilities/
Rosen, P., Richard D., E. H., Peter Rosen Productions, & Video, P. (1996). How Difficult Can this Be? – The F.A.T. City Workshop. [Video]. Retrieved 07 19, 2022, from YouTube. Jennifer Clearwater. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3UNdbxk3xs&t=2s