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Professor Jane Elliott performed a group experiment with her students that they would never forget. It occurs to me that for a teacher, the arrival of new students at the start of each school year has a lot in common with the return of crops each summer. The secretary on duty looked up, startled, as if she had just seen a ghost. The basic idea was to separate the class into two halves - those with blue eyes and those with brown. Mary and Zeke have three children, all of whom have blue eyes. Answer (1 of 3): My guess is that is doesn't really represent racism but classism. The experiment known as Blue Eyes Brown Eyes experiment is regarded as an eye-opening way for children to learn about racism and discrimination. She told them that people with brown eyes were superior to those with blue eyes, for reasons she made up. Before she could answer, another boy piped up: "If she didn't have blue eyes, she'd be the principal or the superintendent.". Elliott reminded them that the reason for the lesson was the King assassination, and she asked them to write down what they had learned. She was hesitant to enroll in Elliotts workshop but was told that if she wanted to succeed as a manager, shed have to attend. Unfortunately, you cant copy samples. 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. Its not true and its not fair no matter what you say! he responded. Before proceeding with the test, she began with random questions to fully understand the children's perception of Negroes. The Associated Press followed up, quoting Elliott as saying she was "dumbfounded" by the exercise's effectiveness. She told the kids that blue-eyed children weren't as good as brown-eyed or green-eyed ones. Elliott pulled out green construction paper armbands and asked each of the blue-eyed kids to wear one. All the work should be used in accordance with the appropriate policies and applicable laws. Weve been here before, with unsettling and disturbing results. A Teacher's Report on 'a Class Divided' a Pbs Film: Teaching On Friday, April 5, 1968, in Riceville, IA, a third-grade student walked . The documentary has become a popular teaching tool among teachers, business owners, and even employees at correctional facilities. The students started to internalize, and accept, the characteristics they'd been arbitrarily assigned based on the color of their eyes. Professor of Journalism, University of Iowa. The latter felt discriminated against by the other brown-eyed children. Knowing that her experiment would have consequences, Jane remained committed to her course. The more melanin, the darker the person's eyesand the smarter the person. 4. 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. I have brown eyes. 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. (She prefers the term "exercise.") It also shows how arbitrary and subjective things can turn friends, family members, and citizens against each other. Multi-Problem Adolescents: An Increasing Problem, Professor Jane Elliott performed a group experiment, the current problems related to discrimination. ", Jane shielded her eyes from the morning sun. Elliott started to see her own white privilege, even her own ignorance. She split the class in two categories, according to eye color, and told the children that one group was superior to the others. Proceeding with the experiment, Elliot divided the children into two groups each with nine pupils. I felt like hitting them if I wanted to. Jane Elliott is 84 years old, a tiny woman with white hair, wire-rim glasses and little patience. Two years later, a BBC documentary captured the experiment in Elliott's classroom. The assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968 prompted educator Jane Elliott to create the now-famous "blue eyes/brown eyes 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. Their response is to create dichotomies of inferiority and superiority. Blue Eyes Brown Eyes - Jane Elliott | Practical Psychology Yes, the children felt angry, hurt, betrayed. However, both Mary and Zeke have brown eyes. Days after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. That might have been the end of it, but a month later, Elliott says, Johnny Carson called her. Elliott went after Ken and Barbie all day long, drilling, accusing, ridiculing them, to make the point that whites make baseless judgments about Blacks all the time, Pasicznyk said. Words are the most powerful weapon devised by humankind. "People of other color groups seem to understand," she said. 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. Exercise or Experiment-- An Account of Jane Elliott's Tenacity: A Elliott, who is white, separated the students into two groupsthose with blue eyes and those with brown eyes. 1. The results showed a . "That's what I tried to teach, and that's what drove the other teachers crazy. Elliott split her students into two groups, based on eye color. Keep me from judging a man until I have walked a mile in his moccasins. This is a Sioux saying. On the first day of the two-day experiment, Elliott told the . Scores of others did participate. However, the study shows some bias in the sample size and race of participants. I got to have five minutes extra of recess." Would you like to get this essay by email? Tears formed in the corners of Elliott's eyes. Mental Sandboxes and Their Usefulness in Today's World, The Law of Reversed Effort: When Taking Action Isn't the Best Option. Normally, blue-eyes isnt an insult. Elliott was featured on nearly every national news show in America for decades. When the blue-eyed group saw that the brown-eyed group was going to be seated first, some became upset. 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. The study also violates the American Principles of Psychologist codes of conduct making its replication or further investigation unethical. 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. Elliott turned into Americas mother of diversity training. Jane Elliott, shown here in 2009, remains an outspoken advocate against racism. Jane Elliott's Blue-Eyed versus Brown-Eyed Students experiment was conducted to determine whether racism was a learned characteristic. Exploring your mind Blog about psychology and philosophy. Ethical Principles of Psychologists & Code of Conduct - StudyMode Thats what it feels like when youre discriminated against., -A child participant in the Blue Eyes-Brown Eyes experiment-. Thats just the way blue-eyed kids were, Elliott told the students. That says very plainly that you know whats happening, you know you dont want it for you. At first, she cooperated with me. Essay Sample: Ethical Concerns in Jane Elliot's Experiment - SpeedyPaper She was a local girl and the other teachers were intimidated by her success. Sadly, these conversations are still relevant today. Then tell them that . It's the Jane Elliott machine. She said she watched and was horrified at what she saw. ", A chorus of "Yeahs" went up, and so began one of the most astonishing exercises ever conducted in an American classroom. Jane Elliott's experiment. You should be happy! The test violated the principle of respect for people's rights and dignity. Elliott created the blue-eyes/brown-eyes classroom exercise in 1968 to teach students about racism. Jane Elliott, Known for "Blue Eyes, Brown Eyes," on Racism in 2020 "We give our children shots to inoculate them against polio and smallpox, to protect them against the realities in the future. Stripping away the veneer of the experiment, what was left had nothing to do with race. They are cleaner than blue-eyed people. "You have to put the exercise in the context of the rest of the year. Basically, you establish differences between a set of subjects in order to divide them into separate groups. Jane Elliott | Psychology Wiki | Fandom Most Riceville residents seem to have an opinion of Elliott, whether or not they've met her. "She said, on the day after Martin Luther King Jr. was killed, 'I don't know why you're doing that I thought it was about time somebody shot that son of a bitch,' " she said. Kellen Castineiras PSY Dr. Gail C. Flanagan February 6, 2022. . 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. You give them something nice and they just wreck it." If you have ever heard of the self-fulfilling prophecy, these results may not come as a surprise. It also documents small-town White America's reflex reaction to the . There were more brown-eyed students in the room. When Elliott first conducted the exercise in 1968, brown-eyed students were given special privileges. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. To understand racism, kids must empathise with its impact and The answer, in a word, was nothing. 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. On the first day of the experiment, she declared the brown-eyed group superior and gave them extra privileges like seconds at lunch, extra recess time, and access to the new school playground. Even though some of the children said yes, Elliott pushed back. The smell of the crops and loam and topsoil and manure wafted though the open door. Elliott's friends and family say she's tenacious, and has always had a reformer's zeal. Elliott said that blue-eyed people were less intelligent and less clean. The selection was based on the color of the eye for each group. . Jane Elliott, one of the most controversial figures in U.S. education and diversity training, began her journey to international acclaim in Riceville, Iowa. Back in the classroom, Elliott's experiment had taken on a life of its own. Regardless of age, gender, race, ethnicity or socioeconomic status, decision making in psychology should protect individual rights and welfare to eliminate potential biases. Sign up for Politics Weekly.]. The subjects were 164 students enrolled in eight sections of an introductory elementary education course at a state university. Thats how it started, and thats how it went all day long. Traditionally, society has always treated leadership as a male issue. 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 . Why do researchers use correlational studies? Blue or Brown; A Classroom Divided | Applied Social Psychology (ASP) 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. 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 . To most people, it seemed to suggest that racism could be reduced, even eliminated, by a one- or two-day exercise. "They can't forget me," she said, "and because of who they are, they can't forgive me. [online] Today I Found Out. Introduction | FRONTLINE - PBS They don't replace the diagnosis, advice, or treatment of a professional. PDF Sociology. PUB DATE She had never met me, and she accused me in front of everyone of using my sexuality to get ahead.. Separate the class into two halves - those with blue eyes and those with brown. The blue-eyed students, when told they were superior and offered privileges such as extra recess time, changed their behavior dramatically and their attitudes toward the children with brown eyes. Advertising Notice The roots of racism and why it continues unabated in America and other nations are complicated and gnarled. You have the right color eyes!. Elliott asked her students to write about their experiences for the local newspaper. To this day, at the age of 86, Jane Elliott continues this work. Classroom experiment. She was 10 before the farmhouse had running water and electricity. On the day after Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered in April 1968, Jane Elliott's third graders from the small, all-white town of Riceville, Iowa, came to class . The May 25 killing of George Floyd set off weeks of nationwide protests over the police abuse and racism against black people, plunging the U.S. into a reckoning of racial inequality. "That you, Ms. I felt like quitting school. Jane Elliot: Blue Eyes, Brown Eyes - UKEssays.com "A Class Divided": How We Learn to Discriminate - Psychology Today The first thing that Jane Elliott did was divide the children into groups: those with blue eyes and those with brown eyes. (2022, Apr 06). APA principles acknowledge that individuals rights to privacy, self-determination, and confidentiality is paramount to all psychological activities. Lesson of a Lifetime | Science| Smithsonian Magazine Dick DeMarsico/New York World-Telegram & the Sun Newspaper Photograph Collection/PhotoQuest/Getty Images, Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images, Committee Member - MNF Research Advisory Committee, PhD Scholarship - Uncle Isaac Brown Indigenous Scholarship. 10," Elliott said. Youve probably heard different versions of it. Jane Elliott - Wikipedia The assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968 prompted educator Jane Elliott to create the now-famous "blue eyes/brown eyes exercise.". Elliott was not. She has . Why are we still talking about this experiment over 50 years later? Not only were they fewer in numbers, but the authority figure was against them. Elliott was shocked by the results and decided to switch the roles the following day. "How do you think it would feel to be a Negro boy or girl?" She decided to continue the exercise with her students after lunch. Jane Elliott On the first day, the blue-eyed students were informed that they were genetically inferior to the brown-eyed students. They needed not acknowledge their privilege or reflect on it. Jane Elliott has done a lot of reflection about the consequences of the minimal group experiment. The nonstop parade of sickening events such as the murder of George Floyd surely is not going to be abated by a quickie experiment led by a white person for the alleged benefit of other whites as was the case with the blue-eyed, brown eyed experiment. (Byrnes & Kiger, 1992). 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 was a standing-room-only speaker at hundreds of colleges and universities. Blue-eyed people would get 5 extra minutes on the playground and blue-eyed people could not talk to brown-eyed people. Role Theory: Expectations, Identities, and Behaviors. Jane would get invited to go to Timbuktu to give a speech. Despite the adaptation of the experiment in psychological studies, Jane has been widely criticized for her unethical conduct and promotion of discrimination among children. "Do blue-eyed people remember what they've been taught?" One scholar asserts that it is "Orwellian" and teaches whites "self-contempt." The hate and discrimination that we see in adults have their origin in their upbringing. The Brown Eyed / Blue Eyed Experiment - 980 Words | Bartleby "I know who she is. Ethical & Pedagogical Issues 2. PDF Blue eye Brown eye activity - The Classroom The Anti-Racism Exercise That Taught Kids to Be Racist - Gizmodo 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. 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. The searing story is a cautionary tale that examines power and privilege in and out of the classroom. We walked into the principal's office at RicevilleElementary School, Elliott's old haunt. "Mention two wordsJane Elliottand you get a flood of emotions from people," says Jim Cross, the Riceville Recorder's editor these days. On the second day of the experiment, Elliott switched the childrens roles. In the 60s, the United States was in the midst of a social race crisis. See Page 1. After the exercise white college students in . 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. Hire a professional with VAST experience! 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. Then a picture was taken to remember. She has made statements about the increase in hate crimes and racism in recent years. 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." ", That spring morning 37 years ago, the blue-eyed children were set apart from the children with brown or green eyes. Solve your problem differently! Focusing on ethics the experiment violated some of the principles and codes of conduct established by the American Psychological Association. "I think these children walked in a colored child's moccasins for a day," she was quoted as saying. What Was The Blue Eyes Brown Eyes Experiment? The "invisible knapsack" is an analogy for a set of invisible and not widely talked about privileges that white people possess in the society. In Zimbardo's experiment the conditions were much more controlled for later study but the r. 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. a brown-eyed boy asked. The ethical concerns arising from the experiment are consent and deception. . "She could get kids to do anything she wanted them to," he says of 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. At lunchtime, Elliott hurried to the teachers' lounge. "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 says that its shocking how children whore normally kind, cooperative, and friendly with each other suddenly become arrogant, discriminatory, and hostile when they belong to a superior group. Blue Eyes and Brown Eyes: The Jane Elliott Experiment - Exploring Your Mind