(Byrnes & Kiger, 1992). Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. Blue Eyes vs. Brown Eyes Experiment. Kids on top would tease the children who were deemed as the inferior group. She told the kids that blue-eyed children weren't as good as brown-eyed or green-eyed ones. Elliott asked her students to write about their experiences for the local newspaper. ISBN 9780520382268. The experiment, known as Blue Eyes Brown Eyes experiment, is regarded as an eye-opening way for children to learn about racism and discrimination. Elliott was shocked by the results and decided to switch the roles the following day. It also documents small-town White America's reflex reaction to the . A class divided: lessons learned - Times Bulletin The arbitrary division among the students intensified over the course of the experiment, so much so that it actually ended in physical violence. Cookie Settings, Kids Start Forgetting Early Childhood Around Age 7, Archaeologists Discover Wooden Spikes Described by Julius Caesar, Artificial Sweetener Tied to Risk of Heart Attack and Stroke, Study Finds, Rare Jurassic-Era Insect Discovered at Arkansas Walmart. those with brown eyes (or hazel eyes). Jane Elliott | Psychology Wiki | Fandom 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. Its goal was to demonstrate what prejudice was to her third grade class. The exercise is "an inoculation against racism," she says. Elliott shared the essays with her mother, who showed them to the editor of the weekly Riceville Recorder. 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. Scores of others did participate. (2022, Apr 06). . 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. 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. The experiment known as Blue Eyes Brown Eyes experiment is regarded as an eye-opening way for children to learn about racism and discrimination. At first, she cooperated with me. If you are the original author of this essay and no longer wish to have it published on the One caller complained that white children would not be able to handle . Role Theory: Expectations, Identities, and Behaviors. She split the class in two categories, according to eye color, and told the children that one group was superior to the others. "Do blue-eyed people remember what they've been taught?" Carson asked, grinning. Hundreds of viewers wrote letters saying Elliott's work appalled them. Group Prejudice | Jane Elliott's Brown Eyes vs. Blue Eyes Experiment 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. We have to let people find out how it feels to be on the receiving end of that which we dish out so readily.". Written and verified by the psychologist Francisco Roballo. The Blue Eyes & Brown Eyes Exercise. ", Absolutely not. 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. The first thing that Jane Elliott did was divide the children into groups: those with blue eyes and those with brown eyes. Jane divided the class into 9 brown eyes and 9 blue eyes. The brown-eyed children felt suddenly that they were discriminated, while the blue eyed started seeing them as inferior. "On an airplane, it is," Elliott said to appreciative laughter from the studio audience. One of the ways Hitler decided who went into the gas chamber was eye color, Elliott said in a later speech. With this experiment she wanted to let the blue-eyed people (white people) feel how it is to be in low power position. 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. "The browneyed people are the better people in this room," Elliott began. When Sarah, the Elliotts' oldest daughter, went to the girls' bathroom in junior high, she came out of a stall to see a message scrawled in red lipstick on the mirror: "Nigger lover.". The results are mixed. PracticalPie.com is a participant in the Amazon Associates Program. 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. That same year, Elliott was invited to the White House Conference on Children and Youth to conduct an exercise on adult educators. Brown eyes and blue eyes Racism experiment Children Session - Jane The interaction only strengthened Elliott's resolve. There were more brown-eyed students in the room. Blue Eyes, Brown Eyes: A Cautionary Tale of Race and Brutality 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. It's the Jane Elliott machine. Though Jane's actions were justifiable because she was not a psychologist, her experiment cannot be replicated in the present society. 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. 9 Unethical Psychological Experiments That Actually Happened She also made the brown-eyed students put construction paper armbands on the blue-eyed students. This meeting, along with other clips of the exercises impact on education, is featured in a PBS documentary called A Class Divided. Thus, the dominant group, supported by the authorities, will always have the upper hand. Jane would get invited to go to Timbuktu to give a speech. In Building Moral Intelligence: The Seven Essential Virtues That Teach Kids to Do the Right Things, educational psychologist Michele Borda says it "teaches our children to counter stereotypes before they become full-fledged, lasting prejudices and to recognize that every human being has the right to be treated with respect." The fact that children are easy to manipulate into acting in a particular manner explains Jane's choice of sample. The test also included violation of consent in which participation of the children was made involuntarily. The brown-eyed students also exercised a certain level of power over the blue-eyed students when they put the armbands on them. She told them that people with brown eyes were better than people with blue eyes. Blue-eyed children got five extra minutes of recess. Would you? To most people, it seemed to suggest that racism could be reduced, even eliminated, by a one- or two-day exercise. 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 . Strong, Effective and Ethical Lessons | Applied Social Psychology (ASP) In response to the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968, Jane Elliott devised the controversial and startling, "Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes Exercise." This, now famous, exercise labels participants as inferior or superior based solely upon the color of their eyes and exposes them to the experience of . 1. You can contribute to that positive change by watching the documentary. After the local newspaper published a story on Elliott and the experiment, she was flown to New York to appear on May 31, 1968, on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, where she extolled the experiments effectiveness in cluing in her 8-year-old white students on what it was like to be Black in America. Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes: Jane Elliott's controversial classroom experiment 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. Even though the response to the Blue Eyes Brown Eyes exercise was initially negative, it made Jane Elliott a leading figure in diversity training. Delivery in 6+ hours! As for the criticism that the exercise encourages children to distrust authority figuresthe teacher lies, then recants the lies and maintains they were justified because of a greater goodshe says she worked hard to rebuild her students' trust. The Blue Eyes Brown Eyes exercise received national attention shortly after it ended. After the exercise white college students in . At the time, she was a third-grade . SpeedyPaper website, please click below to request its removal: Liked this essay sample but need an original one? Thats just the way blue-eyed kids were, Elliott told the students. The ethical concerns arising from the experiment are consent and deception. They all either smiled or laughed and nodded.". When my grandchildren are old enough, I'd give anything if you'd try the exercise out on them. Ethical issues were 1/3 of the participants refused to take the head off the rat . Focusing on ethics the experiment violated some of the principles and codes of conduct established by the American Psychological Association. The same experiment was also used a couple of years later with adults. She told them brown-eyed . Jane Elliott, the American schoolmarm who would rid us of our racism
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