980 Words. Withdrawn brown-eyed kids were suddenly outgoing, some beaming with the widest smiles she had ever seen on them. 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. The episode features with new footage of the students, who are now adults. 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 . 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. Mary and Zeke have three children, all of whom have blue eyes. The video . Blue-eyed children got five extra minutes of recess. She told the kids that blue-eyed children weren't as good as brown-eyed or green-eyed ones. 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 . "It would be hard to know, wouldn't it, unless we actually experienced discrimination ourselves. This paradigm helps understand the current problems related to discrimination. The blue-eyed children were told not to do their homework because, even if they answered all the questions, theyd probably forget to bring the assignment back to class. "She stirs people up. She believed that experience was the only way her students could understand how it felt like to be discriminated. 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. Jane Elliott on The Tonight Show on May 31, 1968. 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." Pasicznyk joined 75 other employees for a training session in the companys suburban Denver headquarters in the late 1980s. Now 45, she had been in Elliott's third grade class in 1969. While Jane Elliot's experiment makes several assumptions, it also has some ethical concerns. The smell of the crops and loam and topsoil and manure wafted though the open door. Danko, M. (2013). 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. 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. In the documentary, she said that she conducted the original blue-eyes, brown-eyes experiment to make a positive change. . Locals say that drivers don't signal when they turn because everyone knows where everyone else is going. Sorry, but it's not possible to copy the text due to security reasons. In the early morning, dew and fog cover the acres of gently swaying stalks that surround Riceville the way water surrounds an island. If you are the original author of this essay and no longer wish to have it published on the She had never met me, and she accused me in front of everyone of using my sexuality to get ahead.. Children with brown eyes were forced to wear armbands that made it easy for people to see that they had brown eyes. The minimal group paradigm has shaped an entire methodology in social psychology. Jane Elliott's brown eye/blue eye experiment starts at 03:10 of A Class Divided. "Probably because they have been taught how they're treated in this country that they have to understand us. Given the ethical concerns, will you still rely on a quasi-experimental research design as a source of information in counselling psychology? 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. We use them to divide and destroy people., On Understanding The Different Ways We Treat Other Races, Philip Zimbardo (Biography + Experiments). At the time, she was a third-grade . 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. Elliot's approach to the experiment involved creativity in which the pupils' age and ability to comprehend discrimination was taken into account. The second day, Elliott reversed the groups. 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. On April 4 1968, King was killed by the single . 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. The documentary has become a popular teaching tool among teachers, business owners, and even employees at correctional facilities. 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 . Want a quality guarantee? The day after Kings murder, Jane Elliott, a white third-grade teacher in rural Riceville, Iowa, sought to make her students feel the brutality of racism. 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. But Elliotts experiment had a more sinister impact. [online] Today I Found Out. Nevertheless, Elliott became as famous as a teacher could become in America. They are more civilized than blue-eyed people. At her lunch break that day in the teacher's lounge, she told her colleagues about the exercise. Many critics that the children were too young to understand the exercise. Decent Essays. Consequently, the brown-eyed children started using blue-eyes as an insult. "Well, what do you expect from him, Mrs. Elliott," a brown-eyed student said as a blue-eyed student got an arithmetic problem wrong. ", Others have praised Elliott's exercise. 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. At lunchtime, Elliott hurried to the teachers' lounge. See Page 1. The act of treating students differently was obviously a metaphor for the social decisions made on a larger level. Not only were they fewer in numbers, but the authority figure was against them. Written and verified by the psychologist Francisco Roballo. Is your time best spent reading someone elses essay? "I know who she is. As the morning wore on, brown-eyed kids berated their blue-eyed classmates. In her article, Peggy McIntosh compares the "white privilege" to an invisible set of unearned rewards and . When my grandchildren are old enough, I'd give anything if you'd try the exercise out on them. Elliott flew to the NBC studio in New York City. The experiment, known as Blue Eyes Brown Eyes experiment, is regarded as an eye-opening way for children to learn about racism and discrimination. But Paul, one of eight siblings and the son of a dairy farmer, didnt buy Elliotts mollification. In 1970, she demonstrated it for educators at a White House Conference on Children and Youth. Elliott was featured on nearly every national news show in America for decades. In the most uncomfortable moments, Elliott reminds the students of violent acts caused by racism or homophobia. The Blue Eyes Brown Eyes exercise received national attention shortly after it ended. At recess, three brown-eyed girls ganged up on her. Then a picture was taken to remember. Not everyone appreciated Elliotts exercise. I often think about Paul Bodensteiner. We use them to divide and destroy people., White peoples number one freedom, in the United States of America, is the freedom to be totally ignorant of those who are other than white. From the moment the experiment begins, Jane Elliott uses a mean tone to speak to the participants. With over 2 million YouTube subscribers, over 500 articles, and an annual reach of almost 12 million students, it has become one of the most popular sources of psychological information. It was typical of Elliott's blunt styleno "Good morning," no small talk. Elliot wanted to show that the same thing happens in real life with brown eyed people (minority). (2013). 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. Three sections were selected to be administered the simulation . The blue-eyed girl apologized. The Blue-Eyed/Brown-Eyed Experiment: Investigation. In 1968 after Martin Luther King was assassinated the United States was in turmoil. 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. "If this ugly change, if this negative change can happen this quickly, why can't positive change happen that quickly? 4 Pages. Jane Elliott, shown here in 2009, remains an outspoken advocate against racism. The effectiveness of a well-known prejudice-reduction simulation activity, "Blue Eyes-Brown Eyes," was assessed as a tool for changing the attitudes of nonblack teacher education students toward blacks. Although Jane Elliot's intentions were to teach the youngsters about racism, ethical issues related to the simulation were raised. In this article, we talk about leadership and female discrimination.. "Your son got what he deserved," the woman said. That got the other teachers angry. "She got carried away by this possession she developed over human beings. It's the Jane Elliott machine. ", We stopped on Woodlawn Avenue, and a woman in her mid-40s approached us on the sidewalk. You give them something nice and they just wreck it." "How dare you try this cruel experiment out on white children," one said. At first, she cooperated with me. She told them that people with brown eyes were superior to those with blue eyes, for reasons she made up. ", Absolutely not. Essay Sample: Ethical Concerns in Jane Elliot's Experiment. ", Dean Weaver, 70, superintendent of Riceville schools from 1972 to 1979, said, "She'd just go ahead and do things. Cookie Policy New York: Elsevier Science. "Blue-eyed people sit around and do nothing. It is sometimes cited as a landmark of social science. From Elliot's highly controversial experiment it is clear that prejudice and discrimination can only be understood through experience. SpeedyPaper.com 2023 All rights reserved. Hundreds of viewers wrote letters saying Elliott's work appalled them. The basic idea was to separate the class into two halves - those with blue eyes and those with brown. The empathy she works to inspire in students with the experiment, which has been modified over the years, is necessary, she said. One group consisted pupils with brown eye while the other group consisted of those with blue eyes. Undeterred, Elliott tried to appeal to Pauls self-interest. Answer (1 of 3): My guess is that is doesn't really represent racism but classism. They also harassed them constantly. 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. ", We backed out. "How do you think it would feel to be a Negro boy or girl?" "There's a sense of renewal here that I've never seen anywhere else," Elliott says. Her class, 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). "It changed my life. "I understand this is the first time you've flown?" A columnist at a Denver newspaper called it "evil. And you'll always have it. Therefore when she gave the blue eyed people more freedom than the brown eyed people, the blue eyed people started feeling like kings because they thought they were better, and were treated better. You can contribute to that positive change by watching the documentary. They felt superior and had the support of the authority figure (the teacher). I got to have five minutes extra of recess." Solve your problem differently! "That you, Ms. March 26, 1985. "She could get kids to do anything she wanted them to," he says of Elliott. She has appeared on the "Oprah Winfrey Show" five times. The results showed a reversal effect in which the blue-eyed students showed signs of inferiority and low self-esteem. The roots of racism and why it continues unabated in America and other nations are complicated and gnarled. All rights reserved. The Blue Eyes & Brown Eyes Exercise. Elliott separated her all-white class of students into two groups: blue-eyed children and brown-eyed children. Some people feel we can't move on when you have her out there hawking her 30-year-old experiment. Jane Elliot, a third-grade teacher from Lowa town, became troubled with the turn of events and knew that something had to be done about racial discrimination (Danko, 2013). When she went downtown to do errands, she heard whispers. In this scenario, students are told brown-eyed people . Perhaps because the outcome seemed so optimistic and comforting, coverage of Elliott and the experiments alleged curative powers cropped up everywhere. "You know, sweetheart, you haven't changed one bit. The idea of white privilege is closely tied to Elliotts initial question to her students. Professor of Journalism, University of Iowa. To back up my statement Bloom (2005) says Jane Elliott's blue-eyes brown-eyes exercise encouraged children to mistrust authority figures. Elliotts coworkers avoided her after her appearance on The Tonight Show. According to the Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct, 2010 the experiment also violates the principle of Integrity. This procedure is sometimes so subtle that no one notices it happening. Copyright 20102023, The Conversation Media Group Ltd. What Was The Blue Eyes Brown Eyes Experiment? Today, increased migration means more opportunities for people from different backgrounds to interact with each other, which is often a source of conflict. The test also included violation of consent in which participation of the children was made involuntarily. The Associated Press followed up, quoting Elliott as saying she was "dumbfounded" by the exercise's effectiveness. Elliott's friends and family say she's tenacious, and has always had a reformer's zeal. The students who had blue eyes were told that they were better and smarter than their inferior brown-eyed peers. The first day of the experiment she convinced the children that blue-eyed people were smarter, better and would have more priorities. . 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. After the exercise white college students in . Basically, you establish differences between a set of subjects in order to divide them into separate groups. That's what it feels like when you're discriminated against.". "You have to put the exercise in the context of the rest of the year. Jane Elliott at Riceville, Iowa, Elementary School in 1968. 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. The secretary on duty looked up, startled, as if she had just seen a ghost. 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. That's not true. She was a standing-room-only speaker at hundreds of colleges and universities. When Elliott conducted the exercise the next year, she added something extra to collect data. However, in this classroom, having blue-eyes had become a condition of inferiority. The goal of the minimal group paradigm is to establish subjective differences and create a climate of favoritism. The people and cultures already present in a place often feel threatened by new immigrants. . The students were surprised, but they didnt argue. Delivery in 6+ hours! "Things are changing, and they're going to change rapidly if we're very, very fortunate," she said. I interviewed Julie Pasicznyk, who had been working for US West, a giant telecommunications company in Minneapolis. In 1970, Elliott would come to national attention when ABC broadcast their Eye of the Storm documentary which filmed the experiment in action. The latter felt discriminated against by the other brown-eyed children. ", A chorus of "Yeahs" went up, and so began one of the most astonishing exercises ever conducted in an American classroom. Jane Elliott, a teacher and anti-racism activist, performed a direct experiment with the students in her classroom. Elliott started to see her own white privilege, even her own ignorance. 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. Ethical & Pedagogical Issues 2. ", Elliott defends her work as a mother defends her child. Exploring your mind Blog about psychology and philosophy. The Brown Eyed / Blue Eyed Experiment. The experiment known as Blue Eyes Brown Eyes experiment is regarded as an eye-opening way for children to learn about racism and discrimination. This time, the participants werent a bunch of elementary school children they were young adults. Elliott created the blue-eyes/brown-eyes classroom exercise in 1968 to teach students about racism. I felt mad. 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. 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. Initial Reaction to the Blue Eyes Brown Eyes Exercise. This was the smaller group. She chatted about the experiment, and before she knew it was whisked off the stage. Its goal was to demonstrate what prejudice was to her third grade class. Right off the bat, she picked me out of the room and called me Barbie, Pasicznyk told me. The results are mixed. 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. a brown-eyed boy asked. Blue-eyed students suggested that the teacher use a yardstick to discipline brown-eyed students that misbehaved. 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. "Eye color, hair color and skin color are caused by a chemical," Elliott went on, writing MELANIN on the blackboard. Elliott said that blue-eyed people were less intelligent and less clean. She slumped. "Let me look at you," Elliott said. Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER! The selection was based on the color of the eye for each group. Elliott is nothing if not stubborn. What Lies Behind Your Urgent Need to Answer Work E Mails? 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. They gossiped about her in the hallway. She appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show five times. The subjects were 164 students enrolled in eight sections of an introductory elementary education course at a state university. 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. It didnt take long for the children to turn on each other. "Because we might catch something," a brown-eyed boy said. On the first day of the two-day experiment, Elliott told the . "Black children grow up accustomed to such behavior, but white children, there's no way they could possibly understand it. Elliott championed the experiment as an inoculation against racism., [The Conversations Politics + Society editors pick need-to-know stories. Subsequently the brown-eyed children stopped objecting, even when Miss Elliott and the blue-eyed kids chastised and bullied them. When you read about this experiment, its hard not to question labels. We have to let people find out how it feels to be on the receiving end of that which we dish out so readily.". The mainstream media were complicit in advancing such a simplistic narrative. Knowing that her experiment would have consequences, Jane remained committed to her course. These are the sources and citations used to research Jane Elliott's blue eye brown eye case study is/isn't more ethical than Zimbardo's Stanford prison experiment. At this point you may wish to tell the pupils that you are conducting an "experiment" to look at what prejudice is. Elliott began the exercise by dividing her students by eye color. ", For years scholars have evaluated Elliott's exercise, seeking to determine if it reduces racial prejudice in participants or poses a psychological risk to them. . Weve been here before, with unsettling and disturbing results. "It's happening every day in this country, right now," she said in an interview with Morning Edition. Elliott instructed the blue-eyed kids not to play on the jungle gym or swings. The ethical concerns arising from the experiment are consent and deception. Through this study, Elliot demonstrated how easy it is for prejudice and discrimination to emerge from just a simple message that people with one eye color are superior to people with another eye color. "It's the same thing over and over again," Cross says. "We just want to peek in," I volunteered. But not Elliott. Thats just the way blue-eyed kids were, Elliott told the students. 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. "Would you like to come on the show?" In the 60s, the United States was in the midst of a social race crisis. Order from one of our vetted writers instead, First name should have at least 2 letters, Phone number should have at least 10 digits, Free Essay with a Response to Cross Words by UIW President Louis Agnese, How Does Donald Duk View His Chinese Heritage?
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