On the first day, the blue-eyed students were informed that they were genetically inferior to the brown-eyed students. All rights reserved. She has appeared on the "Oprah Winfrey Show" five times. Elliott is nothing if not stubborn. Their response is to create dichotomies of inferiority and superiority. . She pointed out flaws in a student and associated it with . Jane Elliott's brown eye/blue eye experiment starts at 03:10 of A Class Divided. Yet what Elliott did continues to stir controversy. Essay Sample: Ethical Concerns in Jane Elliot's Experiment - SpeedyPaper I felt mad. In the case of any doubt, it's best to consult a trusted specialist. The "invisible knapsack" is an analogy for a set of invisible and not widely talked about privileges that white people possess in the society. The corn grows so fast in northern Iowafrom seedling to seven-foot-high stalk in 12 weeksthat it crackles. Elliott was featured on nearly every national news show in America for decades. Three sections were selected to be administered the simulation . Brown-eyed people, she told the students, are smarter, more civilized and better than blue-eyed people. A Review of Jane Elliott's Experiment In, a Class Divided The blue-eyed participants faced discrimination for two and a half hours. Blue Eyed vs Brown Eyed Experiment by Bree Elliott - Prezi It also documents small-town White America's reflex reaction to the . "We are repeating the blue-eyed/brown-eyed exercise on a daily basis.". 4 Pages. A columnist at a Denver newspaper called it "evil. School ought to be about developing character, but most teachers won't touch that with a ten-foot pole.". That phrase came to my mind when I watched the video, A Class Divided, about education experiment to teach stereotyping, prejudice and discrimination (Frontline, 1985 . Before proceeding with the test, she began with random questions to fully understand the children's perception of Negroes. Alan Charles Kors, a professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania, says Elliott's diversity training is "Orwellian" and singled her out as "the Torquemada of thought reform." "I know who she is. They also harassed them constantly. Did they know what it was like to be discriminated against? In the wake of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., Elliott developed a simple exercise that explored the nature of racism and prejudice.. Elliott's method for exploring racism in the context of an all-white classroom consisted of dividing her students into two groups on the basis of eye color, blue or brown (those with other eye colors were assigned to the group . If this arbitrary division that Elliott enforced for a few hours created so many problems in this classroom, whats happening on a larger scale? She then made the blue-eyed students believe that they were better and smarter than their counterparts. Barbie had to have a Ken, so Elliott picked from the audience a tall, handsome man and accused him of doing the same things with his female subordinates, Pasicznyk said. Folks leave their cars unlocked, keys in the ignition. Professor of Journalism, University of Iowa. "There's a sense of renewal here that I've never seen anywhere else," Elliott says. In explaining the experiment rules to the brown-eyed contestants, she addresses the people of color in the room. The Blue Eyes Brown Eyes exercise received national attention shortly after it ended. We use them to divide and destroy people., On Understanding The Different Ways We Treat Other Races, Philip Zimbardo (Biography + Experiments). Advertising Notice Exploring your mind Blog about psychology and philosophy. In the early morning, dew and fog cover the acres of gently swaying stalks that surround Riceville the way water surrounds an island. She decided to continue the exercise with her students after lunch. Unfortunately, you cant copy samples. She repeated the abuse with subsequent classes, and finally turned it into a fully commercial enterprise. Separate the class into two halves - those with blue eyes and those with brown. In this documentary, Jane Elliott, a third grade teacher divided her class into two groups based on their eye color; one group had blue eyes and the other had brown eyes. To Kill A Mockingbird Quotes - 1072 Words | Internet Public Library Elliot said that when the children were given the test on the same day that they were in the superior group, they tended to get the highest scores. Much like the Zimbardo's Stanford Prison experiment where students were divided by either being the jailer or the jailed. Typical of their responses was that of Debbie Hughes, who reported that "the people in Mrs. Elliott's room who had brown eyes got to discriminate against the people who had blue eyes. The blue eye brown eye experiment. Blue Eyes and Brown Eyes: The Jane It's cruel to white children and will cause them great psychological damage. Elliott began the exercise by dividing her students by eye color. And Im only doing this as an exercise that every child knows is an exercise and every child knows is going to end at the end of the day., We learn to be racist, therefore we can learn not to be racist. Mental Sandboxes and Their Usefulness in Today's World, The Law of Reversed Effort: When Taking Action Isn't the Best Option. Below, . Knowing that her experiment would have consequences, Jane remained committed to her course. I got to have five minutes extra of recess." After the local newspaper published a story on Elliott and the experiment, she was flown to New York to appear on May 31, 1968, on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, where she extolled the experiments effectiveness in cluing in her 8-year-old white students on what it was like to be Black in America. Before she could answer, another boy piped up: "If she didn't have blue eyes, she'd be the principal or the superintendent.". She was a local girl and the other teachers were intimidated by her success. When my grandchildren are old enough, I'd give anything if you'd try the exercise out on them. "That's what I tried to teach, and that's what drove the other teachers crazy. As a result of those divisions, you see racial discrimination or even terrorism. Grey eyes are also a rare eye color. A Class Divided: An Experiment Involving Race and Prejudice Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct. The idea was simple but profound. Regardless of age, gender, race, ethnicity or socioeconomic status, decision making in psychology should protect individual rights and welfare to eliminate potential biases. The blue-eyed girl apologized. "Brown eyes and Blue eyes" Study | sabbaila As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. This paradigm helps understand the current problems related to discrimination. ", Then, the inevitable: "Hey, Mrs. Elliott, how come you're the teacher if you've got blue eyes?" Things even got violent at recess. The experiment, known as Blue Eyes Brown Eyes experiment, is regarded as an eye-opening way for children to learn about racism and discrimination. Kellen Castineiras PSY Dr. Gail C. Flanagan February 6, 2022. . You have the right color eyes!. Children often fight, argue, and sometimes hit each other, but this time they were motivated by eye color. She told her students that she had made a mistake the previous day and that brown-eyed students . One of the blue eyed even went to hit a brown eyed just for the fact that he was brown eyed. Jane Elliott, a teacher and anti-racism activist, performed a direct experiment with the students in her classroom. This is the phrase that inspired one of the most well-known experiments in education. And our number two freedom is the freedom to deny that were ignorant., I want every white person in this room who would be happy to be treated as this society in general treats our citizens, our black citizens, if you, as a white person, would be happy to receive the same treatment that our black citizens do in this society, please stand. Scores of others did participate. She and her husband, Darald Elliott, then a grocer, have four children, and they, too, felt a backlash. In the most uncomfortable moments, Elliott reminds the students of violent acts caused by racism or homophobia. This was the smaller group. Jane Elliott's Blue Eyes and Brown Eyes experiment was a turning point in social psychology. Blue eyes, brown eyes: Jane Elliott's race experiment 50 years later It brings up immediate anger and hatred. One caller complained that white children would not be able to handle the exercise and would be seriously damaged by the exercise. As a school teacher in the small town of Riceville, Iowa, Elliott first conducted the anti-racism experiment on her all-white third-grade classroom, the day after the civil rights leader was killed. They killed hundreds of thousands of people based on eye color alone, thats the reason I used eye color for my determining factor that day., Elliott divided the class into children with blue eyes and children with brown eyes. She asks them if they have ever faced treatment like the type that blue-eyed people would experience in the following two and a half hours. The day after Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed, Jane Elliott, a teacher in a small, all-white Iowa town, divided her third-grade class into blue-eyed and brown-eyed groups and gave them a daring . Though Jane's actions were justifiable because she was not a psychologist, her experiment cannot be replicated in the present society. The Brown Eyed / Blue Eyed Experiment. She traveled to corporations, banks, prisons, schools and military bases. Social Emotional Learning Lessons for Jane Elliott - Advancement Courses PDF Sociology. PUB DATE Issues such as the right to know, the right to privacy, and informed consent. She gave the blue-eyed students an armband so other students could more easily identify them, and then she told her class that it was a scientific fact that people with brown eyes are smarter than those with blue because their bodies had more . Thousands of educators across the United States folded the experiment into their curriculums. Jane Elliott, an educator and anti-racism activist, first conducted her blue eyes/brown eyes exercise in her third-grade classroom in Iowa in 1968. Ethical Issues With Jane Elliott's Experiment Elliot wanted to show that the same thing happens in real life with brown eyed people (minority). Brian, the Elliotts' oldest son, got beaten up at school, and Jane called the ringleader's, mother. Theyd have to use paper cups if they drank from the water fountain. "We give our children shots to inoculate them against polio and smallpox, to protect them against the realities in the future. Back in the classroom, Elliott's experiment had taken on a life of its own. One of the main ones was the fact that their right to withdraw was taken away from them. Two education professors in England, Ivor F. Goodson and Pat Sikes, suggest that Elliott's experiment was unethical because the participants weren't informed of its real purpose beforehand. Jane Elliott on The Tonight Show on May 31, 1968. [White people] on the other hand, don't have to understand them. "It's the same thing over and over again," Cross says. In the 60th year beyond Brown vs. Board of Education, Frontline is making available their classic 1985 documentary, " A Class Divided ," about the experiment and what happened later. The contents of Exploring Your Mind are for informational and educational purposes only. She was a standing-room-only speaker at hundreds of colleges and universities. It makes you proud. Later, it would occur to Elliott that the blueys were much less nasty than the brown-eyed kids had been, perhaps because the blue-eyed kids had felt the sting of being ostracized and didn't want to inflict it on their former tormentors. In this scenario, students are told brown-eyed people . Many critics that the children were too young to understand the exercise. The American Psychologists Principles and code of conduct state that in cases of deception, experimenters should take into consideration the potential harmful effects to participants. Jane Elliott When Elliott first conducted the exercise in 1968, brown-eyed students were given special privileges. The brown-eyed people were told to step to the front of the line. A Class Divided | FRONTLINE - PBS Delivery in 6+ hours! "Mention two wordsJane Elliottand you get a flood of emotions from people," says Jim Cross, the Riceville Recorder's editor these days. To this day, at the age of 86, Jane Elliott continues this work. A difference as simple as eye color, defined and established by the authority figure, created a rift between the students. She was 10 before the farmhouse had running water and electricity. Blue-eyed people. She described to her colleagues what she'd done, remarking how several of her slower kids with brown eyes had transformed themselves into confident leaders of the class. How can put those little children through that exercise for a day? And they seem unable to relate the sympathy that theyre feeling for these little white children for a day to what happens to children of color in this society for a lifetime or to the fact that they are doing this to children based on skin color every day. After recess that day, the brown-eyed children complained that they were . Why'd they shoot that King?" She told them that people with brown eyes were superior to those with blue eyes, for reasons she made up. Jane Elliot and the Blue-Eyed Children Experiment. SYNOPSIS OF BLUE EYED. However, in this classroom, having blue-eyes had become a condition of inferiority. Blue-eyed people would get 5 extra minutes on the playground and blue-eyed people could not talk to brown-eyed people. Charity is humiliating because its exercised vertically and from above; solidarity is horizontal and implies mutual respect.. Youve probably heard different versions of it. While Jane Elliot's experiment makes several assumptions, it also has some ethical concerns. Jane Elliott is 84 years old, a tiny woman with white hair, wire-rim glasses and little patience. When some of the . Select from the 0 categories from which you would like to receive articles. What Was The Blue Eyes Brown Eyes Experiment? She split the class in two categories, according to eye color, and told the children that one group was superior to the others. "We want to see Room No. Part of the problem is that the blue-eyed group is exclusively white, while the brown-eyed group is predominantly non-white, so that eye colour is no longer an analogue or metaphor for race but a . "On an airplane, it is," Elliott said to appreciative laughter from the studio audience. The first thing that Jane Elliott did was divide the children into groups: those with blue eyes and those with brown eyes. Elliott started to see her own white privilege, even her own ignorance. "It's happening every day in this country, right now," she said in an interview with Morning Edition. Her bold experiment to teach Iowa third graders about racial prejudice divided townspeople and thrust her onto the national stage. She could feel a chasm forming between the two groups of students. This bibliography was generated on Cite This For Me on Monday, March 7, 2016. In this 1998 photograph, former Iowa teacher Jane Elliott, center, speaks with two Augsburg University . On April 4 1968, King was killed by the single . Need an original essay on Essay Sample: Ethical Concerns in Jane Elliot's Experiment? That same year, Elliott was invited to the White House Conference on Children and Youth to conduct an exercise on adult educators. She told them that people with brown eyes were better than people with blue eyes. The answer, in a word, was nothing. ", A chorus of "Yeahs" went up, and so began one of the most astonishing exercises ever conducted in an American classroom. The killing of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, was a seismic event, a turning point that compelled many Americans to do something and do it with urgency. There were more brown-eyed students in the room. "It's Riceville 30 years ago. From the University of California Press website: The never-before-told true story of Jane Elliott and the "Blue-Eyes, Brown-Eyes Experiment" she made world-famous, using eye color to simulate racism. Elliott continues, "Just when you think that the fertile soil can sprout no more, another season comes round, and you see another year of bountiful crops, tall and straight. In the 60s, the United States was in the midst of a social race crisis. "I think these children walked in a colored child's moccasins for a day," she was quoted as saying. However, the study shows some bias in the sample size and race of participants. "I think third grade was too young for what she did. "Eye color, hair color and skin color are caused by a chemical," Elliott went on, writing MELANIN on the blackboard. She told the students that the brown-eyed children were inferior and repeated the experiment. Blue Eyes, Brown Eyes: A Cautionary Tale of Race and Brutality PDF TRAUMA-RELATED PSYCHOLOGY EXPERIMENTS - Boston University I want to know why youre so willing to accept it or to allow it to happen for others., The first reaction I get from teachers, who see this film or from hearing, hear me discuss what I do say to me How can you do that to these little children? Two Important Psychological Experiments: The Blue Eye/Brown Eye and Elliott championed the experiment as an inoculation against racism., [The Conversations Politics + Society editors pick need-to-know stories. "She was an excellent school teacher, but she has a way about her," says 90-year-old Riceville native Patricia Bodenham, who has known Elliott since Jane was a baby. Elliott was even brought on The Tonight Show to talk about her experiences. The kids in the bottom group became timider and kept to themselves. The Brown Eyed / Blue Eyed Experiment - 980 Words | Bartleby Answer (1 of 3): My guess is that is doesn't really represent racism but classism. Your Privacy Rights PracticalPie.com is a participant in the Amazon Associates Program. Jane Elliott and Dr. On April 5 1968 the day after the death of Martin Luther King Jr Elliott decided to show her students how easy it was to be influenced by racism. What Was the Purpose of the Blue Eyes Brown Eyes Experiment? Kids on top would tease the children who were deemed as the inferior group. one girl asked. In Building Moral Intelligence: The Seven Essential Virtues That Teach Kids to Do the Right Things, educational psychologist Michele Borda says it "teaches our children to counter stereotypes before they become full-fledged, lasting prejudices and to recognize that every human being has the right to be treated with respect." Almost immediately, it was apparent that she had created segregation and prejudice given that the blue-eyed students began exhibiting signs of dominion and superiority. Tears formed in the corners of Elliott's eyes. She attended a oneroom rural schoolhouse.Today, at 72, Elliott, who has short white hair, a penetrating gaze and no-nonsense demeanor, shows no signs of slowing. The second day, Elliott reversed the groups. In a similar vein, Linda Seebach, a conservative columnist for the Rocky Mountain News, wrote in 2004 that Elliott was a "disgrace" and described her exercise as "sadistic," adding, "You would think that any normal person would realize that she had done an evil thing. PracticalPsychology. Elliott said that blue-eyed people were less intelligent and less clean. "If this ugly change, if this negative change can happen this quickly, why can't positive change happen that quickly? Essay Example, Essay Example on Racism Towards Black People, Essay Sample about Developing a Campaign for School Intimidation, Essay Example on Therapist-Client Relationship Boundaries, Islamic Perspective on Euthanasia, Free Essay Sample. ", Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images, now-famous "blue eyes/brown eyes exercise, 'I See These Conversations As Protective': Talking With Kids About Race. It was typical of Elliott's blunt styleno "Good morning," no small talk. The next day, Jane made it known to the students that she had made a mistake and that the brown-eyed pupils were better and smarter than their counterparts. Weve been here before, with unsettling and disturbing results. Blue Eyed vs Brown Eyed Study Conducted by Jane Elliott Presentation by Bree Elliott Ethics Background The Results In 1968, when Dr. Martin Luther King Junior was assassinated, Jane Elliott was the teacher of a third grade class in the town of Riceville, Iowa. ISBN 9780520382268. The blue eyes brown eyes study was a study on group prejudice and discrimination conducted by Jane Elliot. On the "Tonight Show" Carson broke the ice by spoofing Elliott's rural roots. A Class Divided - Wikipedia Lesson of a Lifetime | Science| Smithsonian Magazine American Psychological Association, 4. That got the other teachers angry. . One key assumption is that the sample population represents an actual society. The results were the same. Order from one of our vetted writers instead. When Elliott walked into the teachers' lounge the next Monday, several teachers got up and walked out. Jane would get invited to go to Timbuktu to give a speech. While controversial, the Blue Eyes Brown Eyes exercise continues to be one of the most well-known and praised learning exercises in the world of educational psychology. "Your son got what he deserved," the woman said. Jane Elliott - Wikipedia (PDF) A Class Divided - ResearchGate March 26, 1985. The brown-eyed children began to act aggressive and mean towards the blue-eyed children. With this experiment she wanted to let the blue-eyed people (white people) feel how it is to be in low power position. She left teaching in the mid-80s to speak publicly about the experience and the impact of prejudice and racism. Almost immediately, it was apparent that she had created segregation and prejudice given that the blue-eyed students began exhibiting signs of dominion and superiority. Researchers later concluded that there was evidence that the students became less prejudiced after the study and that it was inconclusive as to whether or not the potential harm outweighed the benefits of the exercise. She and Darald split their time between a converted schoolhouse in Osage, Iowa, a town 18 miles from Riceville, and a home near Riverside, California. Proceeding with the experiment, Elliot divided the children into two groups each with nine pupils. Grasping for a scientific explanation, she ended up claiming that melanin makes eyes darker, and makes . Ethical Principles of Psychologists & Code of Conduct - StudyMode View Module 2 Discussion_ Are We Still Divided_ Blue Eyes_Brown Eyes_ A 3rd Grade Lesson for Us All.pdf from HUMN 330 at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. (She prefers the term "exercise.") Jane divided the class into 9 brown eyes and 9 blue eyes. But they returned to a better placeunlike a child of color, who gets abused every day, and never has the ability to find him or herself in a nurturing classroom environment." ", A former teacher, Ruth Setka, 79, said she was perhaps the only teacher who would still talk to Elliott. Blue Eyes Brown Eyes - Jane Elliott | Practical Psychology They are cleaner than blue-eyed people. It's the Jane Elliott machine. 296. Stephen Bloom on Jane Elliott's Famous Experiment on Race and "Let me look at you," Elliott said. You should be happy! Everyone's tired of her. Some guidelines for avoiding or reducing this effect are: In conclusion, Jane Elliotts experiment demonstrates the fragility of coexistence and cooperation. The children said yes, and the exercise began. "They shot that King yesterday. Written and verified by the psychologist Francisco Roballo. The fourth of five children, Elliott was born on her family's farm in Riceville in 1933, and was delivered by her Irish-American father himself. Pasicznyk joined 75 other employees for a training session in the companys suburban Denver headquarters in the late 1980s. And what she did caused an uproar. At lunchtime, Elliott hurried to the teachers' lounge. Role Theory: Expectations, Identities, and Behaviors. Disclaimer: SpeedyPaper.com is a custom writing service that provides online on-demand writing work for assistance purposes. A Teacher's Report on 'a Class Divided' a Pbs Film: Teaching How can we teach kids to be more like him? She believed that experience was the only way her students could understand how it felt like to be discriminated. Although Jane Elliot's intentions were to teach the youngsters about racism, ethical issues related to the simulation were raised.