The results showed a reversal effect in which the blue-eyed students showed signs of inferiority and low self-esteem. When the blue-eyed group saw that the brown-eyed group was going to be seated first, some became upset. She told them brown-eyed . ABC broadcast a documentary about her work. 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. Why'd they shoot that King?" Jane would get invited to go to Timbuktu to give a speech. BLUE EYED - Faciliator Guide - Newsreel If you have ever heard of the self-fulfilling prophecy, these results may not come as a surprise. In 1968, schoolteacher Jane Elliott decided to divide her classroom into students with blue eyes and students with brown eyes. The ethical concerns arising from the experiment are consent and deception. Problems with this research were that it went against a lot of ethical issues. That says very plainly that you know whats happening, you know you dont want it for you. Elliott rattled off the rules for the day, saying blue-eyed kids had to use paper cups if they drank from the water fountain. Is it even possible today? Decent Essays. This technique allows researchers to show how many different traits are necessary to create defined groups, and then analyze the subjects behavior within their groups. Role Theory: Expectations, Identities, and Behaviors. Evaluation of Jane Elliott's "Blue-Eyed Brown-Eyes" Nobodys standing here. When some of the . ", Others have praised Elliott's exercise. But in reality, I found in researching for my book Blue Eyes, Brown Eyes that the experiment was a sadistic exhibition of power and authority levers controlled by Elliott. I'm tired of hearing about her and her experiment and how everyone here is a racist. All rights reserved. I interviewed Julie Pasicznyk, who had been working for US West, a giant telecommunications company in Minneapolis. Perhaps because the outcome seemed so optimistic and comforting, coverage of Elliott and the experiments alleged curative powers cropped up everywhere. She split the class in two categories, according to eye color, and told the children that one group was superior to the others. How do you think the world would change if everyone experienced the perils and setbacks that come with prejudice and discrimination? The latter felt discriminated against by the other brown-eyed children. To most people, it seemed to suggest that racism could be reduced, even eliminated, by a one- or two-day exercise. Elliott pulled out green construction paper armbands and asked each of the blue . When the exercise ended, some of the kids hugged, some cried. PracticalPsychology. The blue-eyed participants faced discrimination for two and a half hours. Terms of Use Blue Eyes Brown Eyes - Jane Elliott | Practical Psychology Was The Blue Eyes Brown Eyes Experiment Ethical? Delivery in 6+ hours! In this scenario, students are told brown-eyed people . Jane elliots the blue eyes and brown eyes experiment - Course Hero 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. When she separated the class by eye color and announced that blue-eyed children were superior, Paul Bodensteiner objected at every turn. Strong, Effective and Ethical Lessons | Applied Social Psychology (ASP) "Blue-eyed people sit around and do nothing. They don't replace the diagnosis, advice, or treatment of a professional. Below, . To back up my statement Bloom (2005) says Jane Elliott's blue-eyes brown-eyes exercise encouraged children to mistrust authority figures. This meeting, along with other clips of the exercises impact on education, is featured in a PBS documentary called A Class Divided. She also made the brown-eyed students put construction paper armbands on the blue-eyed students. ", When I met Elliott in 2003, she hadn't been back to Riceville in 12 years. The idea of white privilege is closely tied to Elliotts initial question to her students. Jane Elliott has done a lot of reflection about the consequences of the minimal group experiment. [White people] on the other hand, don't have to understand them. The brown-eyed children could take off their armbands and give them to the blue-eyed children, who were now taught that they were inferior to the brown-eyed children. Practical Psychology began as a collection of study material for psychology students in 2016, created by a student in the field. Jane Elliott on The Tonight Show on May 31, 1968. A Teacher Held a Famous Racism Exercise in 1968. She's Still at It. (She prefers the term "exercise.") ", Dean Weaver, 70, superintendent of Riceville schools from 1972 to 1979, said, "She'd just go ahead and do things. In 1970, she demonstrated it for educators at a White House Conference on Children and Youth. She told her students that she had made a mistake the previous day and that brown-eyed students . If you are the original author of this essay and no longer wish to have it published on the When Differences Matter | Facing History and Ourselves The tallest structure in Riceville is the water tower. PDF A Guide to THE ANGRY EYE - 016e880.netsolhost.com 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 . And they are smarter than blue-eyed people." The brown-eyed children got to sit in the front of the room, to go to lunch first, and to have more time at recess. The Blue Eyes & Brown Eyes Exercise. "We'll just be a couple of minutes. She said she watched and was horrified at what she saw. a brown-eyed boy asked. She also assumed that none of the children had interacted with black people and that the only place they could have seen them is on television. ", Elliott says the role of a teacher is to enhance students' moral development. Why do researchers use correlational studies? They all either smiled or laughed and nodded.". The Blue-Eyes, Brown-Eyes Experiment. What Was the Purpose of the Blue Eyes Brown Eyes Experiment? Jane Elliott's Blue Eyes and Brown Eyes experiment was a turning point in social psychology. 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. "A Class Divided": How We Learn to Discriminate - Psychology Today Thousands of educators across the United States folded the experiment into their curriculums. Facilitators should be aware that Jane Elliott's focus on white people can lead viewers to the wrong impression that people of color are passively molded by white people's behavior when, in actuality, people of color can and do respond to racism in a variety of ways. The experiment known as Blue Eyes Brown Eyes experiment is regarded as an eye-opening way for children to learn about racism and discrimination. When she went downtown to do errands, she heard whispers. Website. "Let me look at you," Elliott said. And you'll always have it. "The browneyed people are the better people in this room," Elliott began. She then told them that the children with blue eyes were inherently inferior to the children with brown . ", Elliott defends her work as a mother defends her child. One scholar asserts that it is "Orwellian" and teaches whites "self-contempt." The secretary on duty looked up, startled, as if she had just seen a ghost. 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 . The 1970s and 1980s were ripe for diversity education in the private and public sectors, and Elliott would try out the experiment at workshops on tens of thousands of participants, not just in the U.S. and Canada, but in Europe, the Middle East and Australia. The brown-eyed children began to act aggressive and mean towards the blue-eyed children. They also harassed them constantly. When Elliott conducted the exercise the next year, she added something extra to collect data. She told the students that the brown-eyed children were inferior and repeated the experiment. Fourteen years later, the students featured in The Eye of the Storm reunited and discussed their experiences with Elliott. How can we teach kids to be more like him? Students in the inferior groups were more likely to get a worse score. Blue Eyes, Brown Eyes: A Cautionary Tale of Race and Brutality On April 4 1968, King was killed by the single . (In later versions of the exercise, children in the inferior group were given collars to wear.). ", Jane shielded her eyes from the morning sun. PDF Sociology. PUB DATE She has led training sessions at General Electric, Exxon, AT&T, IBM and other corporations, and has lectured to the IRS, the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Department of Education and the Postal Service. 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. At points, you are likely to feel uncomfortable. Right off the bat, she picked me out of the room and called me Barbie, Pasicznyk told me. Was The Blue Eyes Brown Eyes Experiment Ethical? Your Privacy Rights 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. Hire a professional with VAST experience! Traditionally, society has always treated leadership as a male issue. But Elliotts experiment had a more sinister impact. 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. The secretary said the south side of the building was closed, something about waxing the hallways. They felt superior and had the support of the authority figure (the teacher). In the 60s, the United States was in the midst of a social race crisis. On the first day of the two-day experiment, Elliott told the . Elliott was shocked by the results and decided to switch the roles the following day. At first, she cooperated with me. You can contribute to that positive change by watching the documentary. . 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. ", A chorus of "Yeahs" went up, and so began one of the most astonishing exercises ever conducted in an American classroom. Jane Elliott ", We stopped on Woodlawn Avenue, and a woman in her mid-40s approached us on the sidewalk. The Brown Eyed / Blue Eyed Experiment - 980 Words | Bartleby She has since refused to answer any of my inquiries. It seemed to evince that all white people had to do to learn about racism was restrain themselves from an impulse to engage in made-up cruelty. One caller complained that white children would not be able to handle . Exercise or Experiment-- An Account of Jane Elliott's Tenacity: A Elliott was even brought on The Tonight Show to talk about her experiences. In Jane Elliott's experiment she made the third graders believe that the blue eyed people were better,than the brown eyed people. On the first day, she told the children with blue eyes they were superior: smarter and more well-behaved than the children with brown eyes. Words are the most powerful weapon devised by humankind. 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. Back when she introduced the experiment to her Iowa students more than five decades ago, at least one student had the audacity to challenge Elliotts premise, according to those who were in the classroom at the time. Yes, the children felt angry, hurt, betrayed. In doing the research for my book with scores of peoples who were participants in the experiment, I reached out to Elliott. The selection was based on the color of the eye for each group. She asked them if they would like to experience what it felt like to be in a person of colors shoes. Did We Fail the Blue Eyes, Brown Eyes ExperimentOr Did It Fail Us? 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 . On Monday, Elliott reversed the exercise, and the brown-eyed kids were told how shifty, dumb and lazy theywere. She asked the other teachers what they were doing to bring news of the King assassination into their classrooms. A class divided: lessons learned - Times Bulletin The hate and discrimination that we see in adults have their origin in their upbringing. Jane Elliott, a teacher and anti-racism activist, performed a direct experiment with the students in her classroom. That got the other teachers angry. The blue eyes/brown eyes experiment, which could last one to three days, was at a glance similar to other human-potential-movement workshops of the era, including Werner Erhard's est training . [online] Today I Found Out. The Blue Eyes Brown Eyes exercise continues to be relevant. Racism is not genetical. The test also included violation of consent in which participation of the children was made involuntarily. 10 Psychological Experiments That Could Never Happen Today. She told them that people with brown eyes were better than people with blue eyes. The textbook publisher McGraw-Hill has listed her on a timeline of key educators, along with Confucius, Plato, Aristotle, Horace Mann, Booker T. Washington, Maria Montessori and 23 others. "You have to put the exercise in the context of the rest of the year. Jane Elliott's blue eye brown eye case study is/isn't more ethical than "It's Riceville 30 years ago. 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. Society made them believe they were better than other people for arbitrary reasons such as skin color or gender. Youve probably heard different versions of it. Jane Elliott, Known for "Blue Eyes, Brown Eyes," on Racism in 2020 Not everyone appreciated Elliotts exercise. The blue-eyed girl apologized. According to the article is Jane Elliot's experiment to small degree effective. Children often fight, argue, and sometimes hit each other, but this time they were motivated by eye color. Still, Elliott said the last few years have brought out America's worst racist tendencies. One of the main ones was the fact that their right to withdraw was taken away from them. That's what it feels like when you're discriminated against.". After the exercise white college students in . "I don't think this community was ready for what she did," he said.
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