Sadly, these conversations are still relevant today. Advertising Notice 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. Practical Psychology began as a collection of study material for psychology students in 2016, created by a student in the field. 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 . Locals say that drivers don't signal when they turn because everyone knows where everyone else is going. Back in the classroom, Elliott's experiment had taken on a life of its own. Why do researchers use correlational studies? This paradigm helps understand the current problems related to discrimination. It didnt take long for the children to turn on each other. But the protests happening now have given her hope. All rights reserved. This is the phrase that inspired one of the most well-known experiments in education. New York: Elsevier Science. They all either smiled or laughed and nodded.". They also harassed them constantly. I got to have five minutes extra of recess." She gave the blue-eyed students an armband so other students could more easily identify them, and then she told her class that it was a scientific fact that people with brown eyes are smarter than those with blue because their bodies had more . (She prefers the term "exercise.") Its goal was to demonstrate what prejudice was to her third grade class. The nearest traffic light is 20 miles away. 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. Her class, I'm tired of hearing about her and her experiment and how everyone here is a racist. Elliott and I were sitting at her dining room table. The study also violates the American Principles of Psychologist codes of conduct making its replication or further investigation unethical. Would you? Subsequent research designed to gauge the efficacy of Elliotts attempt at reducing prejudice showed that many participants were shocked by the experiment, but it did nothing to address or explain the root causes of racism. ", A former teacher, Ruth Setka, 79, said she was perhaps the only teacher who would still talk to Elliott. Brian, the Elliotts' oldest son, got beaten up at school, and Jane called the ringleader's, mother. Why'd they shoot that King?" View Module 2 Discussion_ Are We Still Divided_ Blue Eyes_Brown Eyes_ A 3rd Grade Lesson for Us All.pdf from HUMN 330 at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. One of the main ones was the fact that their right to withdraw was taken away from them. 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. They wouldnt be allowed second helpings for lunch. Elliott was shocked by the results and decided to switch the roles the following day. Order original essays online. The documentary has become a popular teaching tool among teachers, business owners, and even employees at correctional facilities. 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. I felt like quitting school. "We are repeating the blue-eyed/brown-eyed exercise on a daily basis.". The act of treating students differently was obviously a metaphor for the social decisions made on a larger level. Zimbardocreator of the also controversial 1971 Stanford Prisoner Experiment, which was stopped after college student volunteers acting as "guards" humiliated students acting as "prisoners"says Elliott's exercise is "more compelling than many done by professional psychologists. In this article, we'll explain what happened during the experiment and discuss its consequences. The assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968 prompted educator Jane Elliott to create the now-famous "blue eyes/brown eyes exercise.". Solve your problem differently! 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. The basic idea was to separate the class into two halves - those with blue eyes and those with brown. Website. Jane Elliott, Creator of the "Blue/Brown Eyes" Experiment, Says Racism Is Easy To Fix. PracticalPsychology. Elliott said that blue-eyed people were less intelligent and less clean. Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images 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. Little children don't like uproar in the classroom. ", We stopped on Woodlawn Avenue, and a woman in her mid-40s approached us on the sidewalk. 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). ", We backed out. Fourteen years later, the students featured in The Eye of the Storm reunited and discussed their experiences with Elliott. She has . 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. The experiment known as Blue Eyes Brown Eyes experiment is regarded as an eye-opening way for children to learn about racism and discrimination. Immediately after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., Professor Jane Elliott used the minimal group paradigm to perform an experiment that would teach her students about race discrimination. Sign up for Politics Weekly.]. The empathy she works to inspire in students with the experiment, which has been modified over the years, is necessary, she said. When the blue-eyed group saw that the brown-eyed group was going to be seated first, some became upset. In a similar vein, Linda Seebach, a conservative columnist for the Rocky Mountain News, wrote in 2004 that Elliott was a "disgrace" and described her exercise as "sadistic," adding, "You would think that any normal person would realize that she had done an evil thing. Why Did Jane Elliott Choose Eye Color To Divide Her Students? [White people] on the other hand, don't have to understand them. She has since refused to answer any of my inquiries. "Blue-eyed people sit around and do nothing. Elliott turned into Americas mother of diversity training. Having in mind that it would be difficult to explain to third graders about discrimination, she needed to be more practical so that her student could understand how discrimination and prejudice felt. The assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968 was also an event that spurred educators to action, motivating one teacher to try out a bold experiment touted to reduce racism. She told them brown-eyed . One teacher ended up displaying the same bigotry Elliott had spent the morning trying to fight. "You have to put the exercise in the context of the rest of the year. The subjects were 164 students enrolled in eight sections of an introductory elementary education course at a state university. What Was The Blue Eyes Brown Eyes Experiment? The smell of the crops and loam and topsoil and manure wafted though the open door. Jane Elliott, shown here in 2009, remains an outspoken advocate against racism. Is your time best spent reading someone elses essay? It's cruel to white children and will cause them great psychological damage. And you'll always have it. The experiment is to help the children to understand about prejudice and discrimination. She says its because racism, sexism, homophobia, ageism, and ethnocentrism are mean and nasty. The second day, Elliott reversed the groups. It also shows how arbitrary and subjective things can turn friends, family members, and citizens against each other. Mental Sandboxes and Their Usefulness in Today's World, The Law of Reversed Effort: When Taking Action Isn't the Best Option. Jane Elliott, a teacher and anti-racism activist, performed a direct experiment with the students in her classroom. hide caption. 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. "How dare you try this cruel experiment out on white children," one said. Was The Blue Eyes Brown Eyes Experiment Ethical? She also made the brown-eyed students put construction paper armbands on the blue-eyed students. Elliott's friends and family say she's tenacious, and has always had a reformer's zeal. Thousands of educators across the United States folded the experiment into their curriculums. This way, she successfully created two distinct groups in her classroom: The consequences of the minimal group became evident very quickly. 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. In the 60th year beyond Brown vs. Board of Education, Frontline is making available their classic 1985 documentary, " A Class Divided ," about the experiment and what happened later. In this article, we talk about leadership and female discrimination.. The latter felt discriminated against by the other brown-eyed children. Kellen Castineiras PSY Dr. Gail C. Flanagan February 6, 2022. . "That you, Ms. One caller complained that white children would not be able to handle . ", Then, the inevitable: "Hey, Mrs. Elliott, how come you're the teacher if you've got blue eyes?" These initial criticisms didnt stop Elliott. Let's just move on. "If this ugly change, if this negative change can happen this quickly, why can't positive change happen that quickly? Elliott created the blue-eyes/brown-eyes classroom exercise in 1968 to teach students about racism. 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. A difference as simple as eye color, defined and established by the authority figure, created a rift between the students. In this 1998 photograph, former Iowa teacher Jane Elliott, center, speaks with two Augsburg University . She and her husband, Darald Elliott, then a grocer, have four children, and they, too, felt a backlash. 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. Jane Elliot's 'The Blue Eyes and Brown Eyes Experiment' was unethical in that she created a segregated environment in a third grade classroom. It is quite powerful to watch. "Brown-eyed people have more of that chemical in their eyes, so brown-eyed people are better than those with blue eyes," Elliott said. ", That spring morning 37 years ago, the blue-eyed children were set apart from the children with brown or green eyes. She learned that the responses from the children were negative and more generalized about what they thought about black people. Children often fight, argue, and sometimes hit each other, but this time they were motivated by eye color. "Do blue-eyed people remember what they've been taught?" On the first day of the two-day experiment, Elliott told the . . 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 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. 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 know, sweetheart, you haven't changed one bit. Shermer and Bloom discuss: "Blue Eyes, Brown Eyes" Jane Elliott famous racism experiment reactions to it (in the classroom, locally, nationally, internationally) whether the "experiment" was really more of a demonstration public interest, from Johnny Carson to Oprah Winfrey the questionable ethics of the experiment what it reveals about tribalism, racism . There are risks to those inoculations, too, but we determine that those risks are worth taking. Even though the response to the Blue Eyes Brown Eyes exercise was initially negative, it made Jane Elliott a leading figure in diversity training. Blue Eyed versus Brown Eyed Students Jane Elliott was not a psychologist, but she developed one of the most famously controversial exercises in 1968 by dividing students into a blue-eyed group and . 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. In 1968, schoolteacher Jane Elliott decided to divide her classroom into students with blue eyes and students with brown eyes. Traditionally, society has always treated leadership as a male issue. 5/21/2020 Topic: Module 2 Discussion: Much like the Zimbardo's Stanford Prison experiment where students were divided by either being the jailer or the jailed. Multi-Problem Adolescents: An Increasing Problem, Professor Jane Elliott performed a group experiment, the current problems related to discrimination. Normally, blue-eyes isnt an insult. The Associated Press followed up, quoting Elliott as saying she was "dumbfounded" by the exercise's effectiveness. She has appeared on the "Oprah Winfrey Show" five times. January 1, 2003. SYNOPSIS OF BLUE EYED. Danko, M. (2013). Elliott championed the experiment as an inoculation against racism., [The Conversations Politics + Society editors pick need-to-know stories. Decent Essays. Jane Elliott's experiment. 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. Thats what it feels like when youre discriminated against., -A child participant in the Blue Eyes-Brown Eyes experiment-. This was intentional. 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. (In later versions of the exercise, children in the inferior group were given collars to wear.). Jane Elliott has done a lot of reflection about the consequences of the minimal group experiment. Though Jane's actions were justifiable because she was not a psychologist, her experiment cannot be replicated in the present society. She decided to continue the exercise with her students after lunch. Elliott began the exercise by dividing her students by eye color. "Hey, Mrs. Elliott," Steven yelled as he slung his books on his desk. On the other hand, privileged members of the community are treated as in-groups which earn them undue respect and capacity to abuse the less advantaged. Role Theory: Expectations, Identities, and Behaviors. Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct. 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. Blue-eyed students suggested that the teacher use a yardstick to discipline brown-eyed students that misbehaved. Ethics + Religion; Health; Politics + Society; . 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 . Once indoors, the brown-eyed group was then treated to coffee and doughnuts, while the blue-eyed group could only stand around and wait. At this point you may wish to tell the pupils that you are conducting an "experiment" to look at what prejudice is. "Things are changing, and they're going to change rapidly if we're very, very fortunate," she said. "I understand this is the first time you've flown?" To begin with, Jane Elliot's experiment involved deception in which the children were made in believing that change in eye color influence intelligence. 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. If you white folks want to be treated the way blacks are in this society, stand. "It's the same thing over and over again," Cross says. Select from the 0 categories from which you would like to receive articles. The results were the same. Before proceeding with the test, she began with random questions to fully understand the children's perception of Negroes. 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. The fact that children are easy to manipulate into acting in a particular manner explains Jane's choice of sample. She chatted about the experiment, and before she knew it was whisked off the stage. About Press Copyright Contact us Creators Advertise Developers Terms Privacy Policy & Safety How YouTube works Test new features NFL Sunday Ticket Press Copyright . And the exercise continued in a similar fashion to how it was executed the day before. The brown-eyed children didnt want to play with the blue-eyes during recess. To this day, at the age of 86, Jane Elliott continues this work. 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 . "Mention two wordsJane Elliottand you get a flood of emotions from people," says Jim Cross, the Riceville Recorder's editor these days. This time, the participants werent a bunch of elementary school children they were young adults. Most Riceville residents seem to have an opinion of Elliott, whether or not they've met her. Elliott? Although actions from the experiment show lack of respect towards subjects it has widely been recognized in the study of human behavior in social and cultural context. Jane Elliott's Blue Eyes and Brown Eyes experiment was a turning point in social psychology. It also documents small-town White America's reflex reaction to the . 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. ", Absolutely not. She was a local girl and the other teachers were intimidated by her success. As a result of those divisions, you see racial discrimination or even terrorism. Unfortunately, you cant copy samples. Not only were they fewer in numbers, but the authority figure was against them. If you had a good German name, but you had brown eyes, they threw you into the gas chamber because they thought you might be a Jewish person who was trying to pass. Additionally, the brown-eyed students got to sit in the front of the class, while the blue-eyed kids . Students in the inferior groups were more likely to get a worse score. Throughout the investigation, the classroom represented a real-life scenario in which the unprivileged and minority members of the society are treated as out-groups making them susceptible to discrimination. ", 2023 Smithsonian Magazine Jane Elliott's brown eye/blue eye experiment starts at 03:10 of A Class Divided. But when she discovered that I was asking pointed questions of scores of her former students, as well as others subjected to the experiment, she made an about-face and said she no longer would cooperate with me. The secretary said the south side of the building was closed, something about waxing the hallways. The more melanin, the darker the person's eyesand the smarter the person. Melanin, she said, is what causes intelligence. The episode features with new footage of the students, who are now adults. ", When I met Elliott in 2003, she hadn't been back to Riceville in 12 years. Then tell them that . Ethical issues were 1/3 of the participants refused to take the head off the rat . Copyright 20102023, The Conversation Media Group Ltd. It is sometimes cited as a landmark of social science. When Elliott walked into the teachers' lounge the next Monday, several teachers got up and walked out. 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. While controversial, the Blue Eyes Brown Eyes exercise continues to be one of the most well-known and praised learning exercises in the world of educational psychology. "We want to see Room No. Professor Jane Elliott performed a group experiment with her students that they would never forget. Why are we still talking about this experiment over 50 years later? "They are cleaner and they are smarter.". "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. Today, she says, it's still playing out as the U.S. reckons with racial injustice. ", A chorus of "Yeahs" went up, and so began one of the most astonishing exercises ever conducted in an American classroom. The "invisible knapsack" is an analogy for a set of invisible and not widely talked about privileges that white people possess in the society. If this arbitrary division that Elliott enforced for a few hours created so many problems in this classroom, whats happening on a larger scale? Two students even got into a physical altercation. You should be happy! 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. In 1970, Elliott would come to national attention when ABC broadcast their Eye of the Storm documentary which filmed the experiment in action. She asked them if they would like to experience what it felt like to be in a person of colors shoes. The Blue Eyes & Brown Eyes Exercise. However, both Mary and Zeke have brown eyes. The Brown Eyed / Blue Eyed Experiment. The brown-eyed people were told to step to the front of the line. Days after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. ( 1985-03-26) " A Class Divided " is a 1985 episode of the PBS series Frontline. Terms of Use At lunchtime, Elliott hurried to the teachers' lounge. Jane Elliot's experiment explains the reasons for discrimination to a small extent. Their 12-year-old daughter, Mary, came home from school one day in tears, sobbing that her sixth-grade classmates had surrounded her in the school hallway and taunted her by saying her mother would soon be sleeping with black men. The anti-racism sessions Elliott led were intense. Exploring your mind Blog about psychology and philosophy. Her bold experiment to teach Iowa third graders about racial prejudice divided townspeople and thrust her onto the national stage. 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." After the exercise white college students in . You must get the parents first. Elliot's approach to the experiment involved creativity in which the pupils' age and ability to comprehend discrimination was taken into account. "They can't forget me," she said, "and because of who they are, they can't forgive me. They are steeped in centuries of economic deprivation and cultural appropriation. The results showed a reversal effect in which the blue-eyed students showed signs of inferiority and low self-esteem. 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. She began this work in Brown-eyed people. 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. 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 . When Elliott first conducted the exercise in 1968, brown-eyed students were given special privileges. Essay Sample: Ethical Concerns in Jane Elliot's Experiment. 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. It brings up immediate anger and hatred. 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. Issues such as the right to know, the right to privacy, and informed consent. How do you think the world would change if everyone experienced the perils and setbacks that come with prejudice and discrimination? One even wrote a lipstick message with racial slurs. 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? Jane Elliott, a teacher and anti-racism activist, performed a direct experiment with the students in her classroom.
How Many Days Until Real Zombie Apocalypse, Cbp Marine Interdiction Agent Locations, Articles B