Most Riceville residents seem to have an opinion of Elliott, whether or not they've met her. Tears formed in the corners of Elliott's eyes. "Do blue-eyed people remember what they've been taught?" In the brown eyed/blue eyed experiment Jane Elliot told her third graders with blue eyes that they were better than the brown-eyed children. These initial criticisms didnt stop Elliott. Jane Elliott's brown eye/blue eye experiment starts at 03:10 of A Class Divided. At her lunch break that day in the teacher's lounge, she told her colleagues about the exercise. "We'll just be a couple of minutes. The documentary has become a popular teaching tool among teachers, business owners, and even employees at correctional facilities. Even family members can turn against each other if some authority suddenly decides that those differences are a problem. Two students even got into a physical altercation. "She taught in this school for 18 years." 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." She wanted them to understand what discrimination felt like. The musical is about romance, but it integrates issues of race and discrimination (Norris, 2014), and the song is about how discrimination is taught carefully, in long term. The interaction only strengthened Elliott's resolve. 296. Stephen Bloom on Jane Elliott's Famous Experiment on Race and In the most uncomfortable moments, Elliott reminds the students of violent acts caused by racism or homophobia. Malinda Whisenhunt? You must get the parents first. Role Theory: Expectations, Identities, and Behaviors. She also made the brown-eyed students put construction paper armbands on the blue-eyed students. Grasping for a scientific explanation, she ended up claiming that melanin makes eyes darker, and makes . Looking back, I think part of the problem was that, like the residents of other small midwestern towns I've covered, many in Riceville felt that calling attention to oneself was poor manners, and that Elliott had shone a bright light not just on herself but on Riceville; people all over the United States would think Riceville was full of bigots. Decent Essays. Terms of Use Locals say that drivers don't signal when they turn because everyone knows where everyone else is going. Jane Elliott at Riceville, Iowa, Elementary School in 1968. The Blue Eyes and Brown Eyes Experiment - Studocu Watch it online right now! In Zimbardo's experiment the conditions were much more controlled for later study but the r. PDF TRAUMA-RELATED PSYCHOLOGY EXPERIMENTS - Boston University He printed them under the headline "How Discrimination Feels." "Things are changing, and they're going to change rapidly if we're very, very fortunate," she said. In explaining the experiment rules to the brown-eyed contestants, she addresses the people of color in the room. The demonstration has since been taught by generations of teachers to millions of kids across the country. On the second day, the roles were reversed, and those with brown eyes received special treatment, and the blue-eyed children were made to feel inferior (A Class, 2003). She has made statements about the increase in hate crimes and racism in recent years. ", Steve Harnack, 62, served as the elementary school principal beginning in 1977. She would conduct the exercise for the nine more years she taught the third grade, and the next eight years she taught seventh and eighth graders before giving up teaching in Riceville, in 1985, largely to conduct the eye-color exercise for groups outside the school. The blue-eyed brown-eyed experiment was conducted by Jane Elliott, a school teacher from Iowa, in which she separated blue eyed children from brown eyed children and took turns making one of the "superior" to the other. Thousands of educators across the United States folded the experiment into their curriculums. The Brown Eyed / Blue Eyed Experiment - 980 Words | Bartleby Elliott had hoped that this experiment would help the children to better understand the feelings of discrimination that certain groups feel on a daily basis, but what she didn . Would you? The exercise is "an inoculation against racism," she says. Why'd they shoot that King?" The Blue Eyes Brown Eyes exercise received national attention shortly after it ended. One even wrote a lipstick message with racial slurs. The test violated the principle of respect for people's rights and dignity. They embraced the experiments reductive message, as well as its promised potential, thereby keeping the implausible rationale of Elliotts crusade alive and well for decades, however flawed and racist it really was. Problems with this research were that it went against a lot of ethical issues. ", A chorus of "Yeahs" went up, and so began one of the most astonishing exercises ever conducted in an American classroom. Melanin, she said, is what causes intelligence. She says its because racism, sexism, homophobia, ageism, and ethnocentrism are mean and nasty. But not Elliott. ", Then, the inevitable: "Hey, Mrs. Elliott, how come you're the teacher if you've got blue eyes?" The experiment was to be a division of eye colour starting with blue eyed student having superiority and then the following day, the roles would be reversed. She asked her students, who were all white, whether or not they knew what it felt like to be judged by the color of their skin. Jane elliots the blue eyes and brown eyes experiment - Course Hero The empathy she works to inspire in students with the experiment, which has been modified over the years, is necessary, she said. 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. "Probably because they have been taught how they're treated in this country that they have to understand us. 4. They don't replace the diagnosis, advice, or treatment of a professional. We dont have to learn about those who are other than white. One caller complained that white children would not be able to handle the exercise and would be seriously damaged by the exercise. The children were not aware of the experiment, and therefore they could not give their permission of involvement. Jane Elliott's experiment. All 28 children found their desks, and Elliott said she had something special for them to do, to begin to understand the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. the day before. Provide your email for sample delivery, You agree to receive our emails and consent to our Terms & Conditions, Order an essay on this subject and get a 100% original paper. Jane Elliott was a third grade teacher in Riceville, Iowa when she developed the Blue Eyed/ Brown Eyed exercise to teach the effects of racism. The experiment, known as Blue Eyes Brown Eyes experiment, is regarded as an eye-opening way for children to learn about racism and discrimination. In 2001, she was still trying to make a change. [online] Today I Found Out. Kids on top would tease the children who were deemed as the inferior group. What Lies Behind Your Urgent Need to Answer Work E Mails? One key assumption is that the sample population represents an actual society. She nodded. With a couple of basic and arbitrary examples, Elliott made the case that brown-eyed people were better. One teacher ended up displaying the same bigotry Elliott had spent the morning trying to fight. It is sometimes cited as a landmark of social science. "Why?" Normally, blue-eyes isnt an insult. Jane Elliott The students who had blue eyes were told that they were better and smarter than their inferior brown-eyed peers. They didnt need to engage with a single Black person. She told the kids that blue-eyed children weren't as good as brown-eyed or green-eyed ones. 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. 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. As Elliott recalls, she engineered the "blue eyes/brown eyes exercise" in 1968 after watching the late-night news cycle announce the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Rather than be deterred by possible Elliott split her students into two groups, based on eye color. The blue eyes brown eyes study was a study on group prejudice and discrimination conducted by Jane Elliot. Before she could answer, another boy piped up: "If she didn't have blue eyes, she'd be the principal or the superintendent.". Everyone's tired of her. "Maybe the way to sell the exercise would have been to invite the parents in, to talk about what she'd be doing. Some residents were furious. To back up my statement Bloom (2005) says Jane Elliott's blue-eyes brown-eyes exercise encouraged children to mistrust authority figures. Blue-eyed people would get 5 extra minutes on the playground and blue-eyed people could not talk to brown-eyed people. You have the right color eyes!. PracticalPsychology. Hire a professional with VAST experience! One scholar asserts that it is "Orwellian" and teaches whites "self-contempt." "The racists carry on, so I carry on." The lives and legacies of Dr. Jane Elliott and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. are inextricably linked. She also made the brown-eyed students put construction paper armbands on the blue-eyed students. You can start from that point in Activity 2, or you can play the video from the beginning (00:00) so that your students can see civil rights era footage following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., as well as Elliott's students returning to Iowa . One example that has been in place for many years is the blue-eyed/brown-eyed experiment. "Not one of them reprimanded her for that or even corrected her. She told them that people with brown eyes were better than people with blue eyes. It is quite powerful to watch. Now 45, she had been in Elliott's third grade class in 1969. Issues such as the right to know, the right to privacy, and informed consent. The blue eyes and brown eyes experiment According to supporters of Elliott's approach, the goal is to reach people's sense of empathy and morality. One caller complained that white children would not be able to handle . While Jane Elliot's experiment makes several assumptions, it also has some ethical concerns. Was The Blue Eyes Brown Eyes Experiment Ethical? She chatted about the experiment, and before she knew it was whisked off the stage. . The Blue-Eyed/Brown-Eyed Experiment: Investigation. Practical Psychology began as a collection of study material for psychology students in 2016, created by a student in the field. In 1970, she demonstrated it for educators at a White House Conference on Children and Youth. That spring morning 37 years ago, the blue-eyed children were set apart from the children with brown or green eyes. The arbitrary division among the students intensified over the course of the experiment, so much so that it actually ended in physical violence. Elliott championed the experiment as an inoculation against racism., [The Conversations Politics + Society editors pick need-to-know stories. She repeated the abuse with subsequent classes, and finally turned it into a fully commercial enterprise. In the 60s, the United States was in the midst of a social race crisis. Elliott was featured on nearly every national news show in America for decades. When Elliott walked into the teachers' lounge the next Monday, several teachers got up and walked out. Strong, Effective and Ethical Lessons | Applied Social Psychology (ASP)