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You have the right color eyes!. "Probably because they have been taught how they're treated in this country that they have to understand us. Elliott turned into Americas mother of diversity training. Elliot wanted to show that the same thing happens in real life with brown eyed people (minority). She was a local girl and the other teachers were intimidated by her success. "The browneyed people are the better people in this room," Elliott began. American Psychological Association, 4. Ms. Elliott, now 87, said she started teaching about racism on April 5, 1968 the day after the Rev. ", That spring morning 37 years ago, the blue-eyed children were set apart from the children with brown or green eyes. The experiment is to help the children to understand about prejudice and discrimination. The video . 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 . They wouldnt be allowed second helpings for lunch. At this point you may wish to tell the pupils that you are conducting an "experiment" to look at what prejudice is. And StanfordUniversity psychologist Philip G. Zimbardo writes in his 1979 textbook, Psychology and Life, that Elliott's "remarkable" experiment tried to show "how easily prejudiced attitudes may be formed and how arbitrary and illogical they can be." The Blue Eyes Brown Eyes exercise is now known as the inspiration for diversity training in the workplace, making Jane Elliott one of the most influential educators in recent American history. "Because we might catch something," a brown-eyed boy said. Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER! Classroom experiment. On the first day of the experiment, Elliott told the children who had blue eyes that they were superior to the children with brown eyes; that they were better, nicer and smarter. The idea of white privilege is closely tied to Elliotts initial question to her students. The Blue Eyes Brown Eyes exercise received national attention shortly after it ended. The Blue-Eyes, Brown-Eyes Experiment. Thats what it feels like when youre discriminated against., -A child participant in the Blue Eyes-Brown Eyes experiment-. The more melanin, the darker the person's eyesand the smarter the person. As for the criticism that the exercise encourages children to distrust authority figuresthe teacher lies, then recants the lies and maintains they were justified because of a greater goodshe says she worked hard to rebuild her students' trust. She told them that people with brown eyes were superior to those with blue eyes, for reasons she made up. ", The two hugged, and Whisenhunt had tears streaming down her cheeks. "Well, what do you expect from him, Mrs. Elliott," a brown-eyed student said as a blue-eyed student got an arithmetic problem wrong. When Sarah, the Elliotts' oldest daughter, went to the girls' bathroom in junior high, she came out of a stall to see a message scrawled in red lipstick on the mirror: "Nigger lover.". She and her husband, Darald Elliott, then a grocer, have four children, and they, too, felt a backlash. These initial criticisms didnt stop Elliott. The act of treating students differently was obviously a metaphor for the social decisions made on a larger level. Jane Elliot and the Blue-Eyed Children Experiment. The Blue Eyes & Brown Eyes Exercise. Not a day goes by without me thinking about it, Ms. Elliott. 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. Proceeding with the experiment, Elliot divided the children into two groups each with nine pupils. That's what it feels like when you're discriminated against.". What Was the Purpose of the Blue Eyes Brown Eyes Experiment? If you have ever heard of the self-fulfilling prophecy, these results may not come as a surprise. Open Document. Blue Eye/Brown Eye is an experiment performed by Jane Elliot in 1968 on the day after Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated to demonstrate what prejudice was to her third grade class. The blue eyes brown eyes study was a study on group prejudice and discrimination conducted by Jane Elliot. ", Elliott replied, "Why are we so worried about the fragile egos of white children who experience a couple of hours of made-up racism one day when blacks experience real racism every day of their lives?". 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. They felt superior and had the support of the authority figure (the teacher). They needed not acknowledge their privilege or reflect on it. Initial Reaction to the Blue Eyes Brown Eyes Exercise. ", Vision and tenacity may get results, but they don't always endear a person to her neighbors. "On an airplane, it is," Elliott said to appreciative laughter from the studio audience. Written and verified by the psychologist Francisco Roballo. We walked into the principal's office at RicevilleElementary School, Elliott's old haunt. Elliott? That might have been the end of it, but a month later, Elliott says, Johnny Carson called her. See Page 1. In Zimbardo's experiment the conditions were much more controlled for later study but the r. In 1968, schoolteacher Jane Elliott decided to divide her classroom into students with blue eyes and students with brown eyes. Everyone looked at Mrs. Elliott. Jane Elliott is 84 years old, a tiny woman with white hair, wire-rim glasses and little patience. More than 50 years after she first tried that exercise in her classroom, Elliott, now 87, said she sees much more work left to do to change racist attitudes. Given the long-term results of the experiment, the controversial study could not have taken place in today's society despite its significant insights on matters racism. Ethical issues were 1/3 of the participants refused to take the head off the rat . Jane divided the class into 9 brown eyes and 9 blue eyes. Malinda Whisenhunt? "People of other color groups seem to understand," she said. There is a way to avoid editing or writing from scratch! Many critics that the children were too young to understand the exercise. Sorry, but it's not possible to copy the text due to security reasons. Its not true and its not fair no matter what you say! he responded. This meeting, along with other clips of the exercises impact on education, is featured in a PBS documentary called A Class Divided. Order from one of our vetted writers instead. Basically, you establish differences between a set of subjects in order to divide them into separate groups. And what she did caused an uproar. Professor of Journalism, University of Iowa. The tallest structure in Riceville is the water tower. "I think these children walked in a colored child's moccasins for a day," she was quoted as saying. One of the main ones was the fact that their right to withdraw was taken away from them. You should be happy! Many educators responded by holding mandatory workshops on institutional racism and implicit bias, reforming teaching methods and lesson plans and searching for ways to amplify undersung voices. As a journalism professor and author of a book on race that spans more than 50 years, Ive watched these developments with great concern. The first thing that Jane Elliott did was divide the children into groups: those with blue eyes and those with brown eyes. Three sections were selected to be administered the simulation . You give them something nice and they just wreck it." Elliotts coworkers avoided her after her appearance on The Tonight Show. Want a quality guarantee? Jane Elliott on The Tonight Show on May 31, 1968. Not only were they fewer in numbers, but the authority figure was against them. The experiment, known as Blue Eyes Brown Eyes experiment, is regarded as an eye-opening way for children to learn about racism and discrimination. The basic idea was to separate the class into two halves, students with blue eyes and those with brown. 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. This was intentional. "That you, Ms. Brian, the Elliotts' oldest son, got beaten up at school, and Jane called the ringleader's, mother. (2013). Before proceeding with the test, she began with random questions to fully understand the children's perception of Negroes. According to role theorist Erving Goffman, emotional and cognitive experiences in such experiments as the Blue-Eyed versus the Brown-Eyed can have a long-term influence on behaviors and attitudes of participants especially when they are made to play the role of a stigmatized group (Biddle, 2013). When she separated the class by eye color and announced that blue-eyed children were superior, Paul Bodensteiner objected at every turn. A second look at the blue-eyes, brown-eyes experiment that taught third-graders about racism. In present society, psychological experiments are guided by honesty, truthfulness, and accuracy. For many, the experiment went horribly awry. "They are cleaner and they are smarter.". She began this work in It also shows how arbitrary and subjective things can turn friends, family members, and citizens against each other. Racism is not genetical. Jane Elliott's Blue Eyes and Brown Eyes experiment was a turning point in social psychology. The people and cultures already present in a place often feel threatened by new immigrants. One of the most famous experiments in education Jane Elliott's "blue eyes, brown eyes" separation of her third grade students to teach them about prejudice was very different from what the public was told, as revealed in this excerpt from the in-depth story about what really happened in that classroom. The secretary on duty looked up, startled, as if she had just seen a ghost. The smell of the crops and loam and topsoil and manure wafted though the open door. Blue-eyed children got five extra minutes of recess. Elliott shared the essays with her mother, who showed them to the editor of the weekly Riceville Recorder. The documentary has become a popular teaching tool among teachers, business owners, and even employees at correctional facilities. Jane would get invited to go to Timbuktu to give a speech. Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images In this 1998 photograph, former Iowa teacher Jane Elliott, center, speaks with two Augsburg University . "We give our children shots to inoculate them against polio and smallpox, to protect them against the realities in the future. 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. ", Elliott defends her work as a mother defends her child. ", Elliott says the role of a teacher is to enhance students' moral development. "Eye color, hair color and skin color are caused by a chemical," Elliott went on, writing MELANIN on the blackboard. Many critics that the children were too young to understand the exercise. 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. Blue-eyed people. Articles and opinions on happiness, fear and other aspects of human psychology. 2012 2023 . "Let me look at you," Elliott said. One of the blue eyed even went to hit a brown eyed just for the fact that he was brown eyed. They were forced to sit on the back rows and had to use a . 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. Elliott said that blue-eyed people were less intelligent and less clean. (2022, Apr 06). "It's the same thing over and over again," Cross says. She slumped. "He's a bluey! Would you like to find out? Days after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., she pioneered an experiment to show her all-white class of third graders what it was like to be Black in America. The day after Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination in 1968, Jane Elliott, a schoolteacher in rural Iowa, introduced to her all-white third-grade class a shocking experiment to demonstrate . The blue-eyed participants faced discrimination for two and a half hours. After the exercise white college students in . In a grassy front yard down the block is a hand-lettered sign: "Glads for Sale, 3 for $1." Jane Elliott, shown here in 2009, remains an outspoken advocate against racism. "I don't think this community was ready for what she did," he said. She asked them if they would like to experience what it felt like to be in a person of colors shoes. She told her students that she had made a mistake the previous day and that brown-eyed students . In this photograph from Sept. 13, 1965, Black children on their way to school in New York City pass by segregationists protesting integrated busing. At points, you are likely to feel uncomfortable. Children often fight, argue, and sometimes hit each other, but this time they were motivated by eye color. Jane Elliott has done a lot of reflection about the consequences of the minimal group experiment. This way, she successfully created two distinct groups in her classroom: The consequences of the minimal group became evident very quickly. 10," Elliott said. The nearest traffic light is 20 miles away. Elliott split her students into two groups, based on eye color. Jane Elliott, a teacher and anti-racism activist, performed a direct experiment with the students in her classroom. "She stirs people up. On April 4 1968, King was killed by the single . Thats just the way blue-eyed kids were, Elliott told the students. This time, the participants werent a bunch of elementary school children they were young adults. To this day, at the age of 86, Jane Elliott continues this work. PracticalPie.com is a participant in the Amazon Associates Program. She also made the brown-eyed students put construction paper armbands on the blue-eyed students. Jane Elliots work and experiences have made her an authority on education and anti-racism. 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. Abstract The effectiveness of a well-known prejudice-reduction simulation, "Blue Eyes-Brown Eyes," was assessed as a tool for changing the attitudes of ncnblack teacher eduction students toward blacks. Retrieved from https://speedypaper.com/essays/ethical-concerns-in-jane-elliots-experiment, Free essays can be submitted by anyone, so we do not vouch for their quality. 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. "Malinda? Jane Elliott's brown eye/blue eye experiment starts at 03:10 of A Class Divided. Grasping for a scientific explanation, she ended up claiming that melanin makes eyes darker, and makes . 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. "Would you like to come on the show?" Knowing that her experiment would have consequences, Jane remained committed to her course. The students started to internalize, and accept, the characteristics they'd been arbitrarily assigned based on the color of their eyes. "Why?" "You have to put the exercise in the context of the rest of the year. Pasicznyk joined 75 other employees for a training session in the companys suburban Denver headquarters in the late 1980s. . 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 . Directed by William Peters, the episode profiles the Iowa schoolteacher Jane Elliott and her class of third graders, who took part in a class exercise about discrimination and prejudice in 1970 and reunited in the present day to recall the experience. It is a must . You've still got that same sweet smile. She told them that people with brown eyes were better than people with blue eyes. And you'll always have it. Students in the inferior groups were more likely to get a worse score. Theyd have to use paper cups if they drank from the water fountain. Youve probably heard different versions of it. In response to the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968, Jane Elliott devised the controversial and startling, "Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes Exercise." This, now famous, exercise labels participants as inferior or superior based solely upon the color of their eyes and exposes them to the experience of . Once indoors, the brown-eyed group was then treated to coffee and doughnuts, while the blue-eyed group could only stand around and wait. What Lies Behind Your Urgent Need to Answer Work E Mails? On Thursday, April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, TN. Although Jane Elliot's intentions were to teach the youngsters about racism, ethical issues related to the simulation were raised. The brown-eyed children didnt want to play with the blue-eyes during recess. To most people, it seemed to suggest that racism could be reduced, even eliminated, by a one- or two-day exercise. Jane Elliot's experiment involves cheating and intentional misinterpretation of facts. ABC broadcast a documentary about her work. The exercise is "an inoculation against racism," she says. When some of the . One student answers, since the day I was born. Throughout the entire experiment, Elliott leads frank conversations about race and discrimination. All the work should be used in accordance with the appropriate policies and applicable laws. That spring morning 37 years ago, the blue-eyed children were set apart from the children with brown or green eyes. Perhaps because the outcome seemed so optimistic and comforting, coverage of Elliott and the experiments alleged curative powers cropped up everywhere.