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. 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. A Teacher's Report on 'a Class Divided' a Pbs Film: Teaching PDF Discrimination: Experimental Evidence from Psychology and Economics The Blue Eye/Brown Eye was an experiment performed by Jane Elliot in 1968 on the day after Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. 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. The video . If you have ever heard of the self-fulfilling prophecy, these results may not come as a surprise. 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). I often think about Paul Bodensteiner. With this experiment she wanted to let the blue-eyed people (white people) feel how it is to be in low power position. "Well, what do you expect from him, Mrs. Elliott," a brown-eyed student said as a blue-eyed student got an arithmetic problem wrong. he asked. The ethical concerns arising from the experiment are consent and deception. You must get the parents first. Society made them believe they were better than other people for arbitrary reasons such as skin color or gender. On the "Tonight Show" Carson broke the ice by spoofing Elliott's rural roots. Outside, rows of corn stretched to the horizon. It brings up immediate anger and hatred. The goal of the minimal group paradigm is to establish subjective differences and create a climate of favoritism. If this arbitrary division that Elliott enforced for a few hours created so many problems in this classroom, whats happening on a larger scale? Brown-eyed people. 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. 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 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. 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. She also made the brown-eyed students put construction paper armbands on the blue-eyed students. Elliott began the exercise by dividing her students by eye color. The first day of the experiment she convinced the children that blue-eyed people were smarter, better and would have more priorities. She also made the brown-eyed students put construction paper armbands on the blue-eyed students. Jane Elliott She chatted about the experiment, and before she knew it was whisked off the stage. "It's happening every day in this country, right now," she said in an interview with Morning Edition. Today, increased migration means more opportunities for people from different backgrounds to interact with each other, which is often a source of conflict. It was typical of Elliott's blunt styleno "Good morning," no small talk. Jane Elliott, Creator of the "Blue/Brown Eyes" Experiment, Says Racism Is Easy To Fix. 5/21/2020 Topic: Module 2 Discussion: "Malinda? Ethical & Pedagogical Issues 2. Malinda Whisenhunt? Mary and Zeke have three children, all of whom have blue eyes. 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. Order from one of our vetted writers instead. In doing the research for my book with scores of peoples who were participants in the experiment, I reached out to Elliott. Blue-eyed people would get 5 extra minutes on the playground and blue-eyed people could not talk to brown-eyed people. 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. In 2001, she was still trying to make a change. 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 or Brown; A Classroom Divided | Applied Social Psychology (ASP) She split the class in two categories, according to eye color, and told the children that one group was superior to the others. Nevertheless, Elliott became as famous as a teacher could become in America. The results showed a reversal effect in which the blue-eyed students showed signs of inferiority and low self-esteem. The first thing that Jane Elliott did was divide the children into groups: those with blue eyes and those with brown eyes. To back up my statement Bloom (2005) says Jane Elliott's blue-eyes brown-eyes exercise encouraged children to mistrust authority figures. In the early morning, dew and fog cover the acres of gently swaying stalks that surround Riceville the way water surrounds an island. That spring morning 37 years ago, the blue-eyed children were set apart from the children with brown or green eyes. 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. Elliott split her students into two groups, based on eye color. They gossiped about her in the hallway. They also harassed them constantly. 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 her students that she had made a mistake the previous day and that brown-eyed students . Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes: Jane Elliott's controversial classroom experiment The killing of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, was a seismic event, a turning point that compelled many Americans to do something and do it with urgency. BLUE EYED - Faciliator Guide - Newsreel "I understand this is the first time you've flown?" (In later versions of the exercise, children in the inferior group were given collars to wear.). Elliott championed the experiment as an inoculation against racism., [The Conversations Politics + Society editors pick need-to-know stories. 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. Elliott split her students into two groups, based on eye color. 4 Pages. In explaining the experiment rules to the brown-eyed contestants, she addresses the people of color in the room. one girl asked. ", "I've never forgotten the exercise," Whisenhunt volunteered. 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. "Brown eyes and Blue eyes" Study | sabbaila Yes, that day was tough. Would you? Blue-eyed children got five extra minutes of recess. ", Steve Harnack, 62, served as the elementary school principal beginning in 1977. Brown Eyes or Blue: A Social Experiment - Soapboxie This meeting, along with other clips of the exercises impact on education, is featured in a PBS documentary called A Class Divided. 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. 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. At this point you may wish to tell the pupils that you are conducting an "experiment" to look at what prejudice is. Her class, Advertising Notice 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. In this scenario, students are told brown-eyed people . hide caption. She then told them that the children with blue eyes were inherently inferior to the children with brown . Jane Elliott, a teacher and anti-racism activist, performed a direct experiment with the students in her classroom. She compromised the APA's Code of Conduct and Ethical Standard because she lied, after that she recanted the lies and kept as they were justified because of her greater purpose. Melanin, she said, is what causes intelligence. She was a local girl and the other teachers were intimidated by her success. The more melanin, the darker the person's eyesand the smarter the person. Now, almost four decades later, Elliott's experiment still mattersto the grown children with whom she experimented, to the people of Riceville, population 840, who all but ran her out of town, and to thousands of people around the world who have also participated in an exercise based on the experiment. In 1968 after Martin Luther King was assassinated the United States was in turmoil. "If this ugly change, if this negative change can happen this quickly, why can't positive change happen that quickly? Jane Elliott | Psychology Wiki | Fandom Sorry, but it's not possible to copy the text due to security reasons. Children often fight, argue, and sometimes hit each other, but this time they were motivated by eye color. The answer, in a word, was nothing. ", 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?". a brown-eyed boy asked. Ethics + Religion; Health; Politics + Society; . I felt like hitting them if I wanted to. She wanted to show her students that an arbitrarily established difference could separate them and pit them against each other. Elliott rattled off the rules for the day, saying blue-eyed kids had to use paper cups if they drank from the water fountain. The Blue-Eyes, Brown-Eyes Experiment. We use them to divide and destroy people., On Understanding The Different Ways We Treat Other Races, Philip Zimbardo (Biography + Experiments). "You know, sweetheart, you haven't changed one bit. The brown-eyed students also exercised a certain level of power over the blue-eyed students when they put the armbands on them. Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER! ", Jane shielded her eyes from the morning sun. One of the ways Hitler decided who went into the gas chamber was eye color, Elliott said in a later speech. She decided to continue the exercise with her students after lunch. Then a picture was taken to remember. 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 my grandchildren are old enough, I'd give anything if you'd try the exercise out on them. To most people, it seemed to suggest that racism could be reduced, even eliminated, by a one- or two-day exercise. I got to have five minutes extra of recess." She was hesitant to enroll in Elliotts workshop but was told that if she wanted to succeed as a manager, shed have to attend. I have brown eyes. "We'll just be a couple of minutes. 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 . Thats just the way blue-eyed kids were, Elliott told the students. The test also included violation of consent in which participation of the children was made involuntarily. people are better than blue-eyed people. Practical Psychology began as a collection of study material for psychology students in 2016, created by a student in the field. Considering all the stereotypes and prejudices that exist, what kind of damage is being done? 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 . The results showed a . Blue Eyes Brown Eyes - Jane Elliott | Practical Psychology 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. Basically, you establish differences between a set of subjects in order to divide them into separate groups. It is sometimes cited as a landmark of social science. They were forced to sit on the back rows and had to use a . Would you like to get this essay by email? The never-before-told true story of Jane Elliott and the "Blue-Eyes, Brown-Eyes Experiment" she made world-famous, using eye color to simulate racism. "Would you like to come on the show?" They felt superior and had the support of the authority figure (the teacher). The next day when the tables were turned, "I felt like quitting school. 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. ", We backed out. All the work should be used in accordance with the appropriate policies and applicable laws. A second look at the blue-eyes, brown-eyes experiment that taught third The Blue-Eyed/Brown-Eyed Experiment: Investigation. According to the article is Jane Elliot's experiment to small degree effective. And what she did caused an uproar. ", Vision and tenacity may get results, but they don't always endear a person to her neighbors. "They can't forget me," she said, "and because of who they are, they can't forgive me. That says very plainly that you know whats happening, you know you dont want it for you. Cookie Policy Jane Elliott, one of the most controversial figures in U.S. education and diversity training, began her journey to international acclaim in Riceville, Iowa. Elliott was even brought on The Tonight Show to talk about her experiences. Two Important Psychological Experiments: The Blue Eye/Brown Eye and Additionally, the brown-eyed students got to sit in the front of the class, while the blue-eyed kids . ", When I met Elliott in 2003, she hadn't been back to Riceville in 12 years. If brown-eyed children made a mistake, Elliott would call out the mistake and attribute it to the students brown eyes. Classroom experiment. "I don't think this community was ready for what she did," he said. One teacher ended up displaying the same bigotry Elliott had spent the morning trying to fight.
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