"It changed my life. That spring morning 37 years ago, the blue-eyed children were set apart from the children with brown or green eyes. Let's just move on. 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. Yet what Elliott did continues to stir controversy. She told them brown-eyed . "I think these children walked in a colored child's moccasins for a day," she was quoted as saying. 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. The brown-eyed students also exercised a certain level of power over the blue-eyed students when they put the armbands on them. She pointed out flaws in a student and associated it with . 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). She was 10 before the farmhouse had running water and electricity. "Things are changing, and they're going to change rapidly if we're very, very fortunate," she said. In 1970, a documentary about the exercise was released. Elliott split her students into two groups, based on eye color. Kids on top would tease the children who were deemed as the inferior group. a brown-eyed boy asked. "He's a bluey! And you'll always have it. "There's a sense of renewal here that I've never seen anywhere else," Elliott says. Elliott continues, "Just when you think that the fertile soil can sprout no more, another season comes round, and you see another year of bountiful crops, tall and straight. You have the right color eyes!. Their response is to create dichotomies of inferiority and superiority. Elliott and I were sitting at her dining room table. The Associated Press followed up, quoting Elliott as saying she was "dumbfounded" by the exercise's effectiveness. The brown-eyed children began to act aggressive and mean towards the blue-eyed children. These initial criticisms didnt stop Elliott. The blue eyes and brown eyes experiment According to supporters of Elliott's approach, the goal is to reach people's sense of empathy and morality. When my grandchildren are old enough, I'd give anything if you'd try the exercise out on them. Once indoors, the brown-eyed group was then treated to coffee and doughnuts, while the blue-eyed group could only stand around and wait. Elliott said that blue-eyed people were less intelligent and less clean. There were more brown-eyed students in the room. According to role theorist Erving Goffman, emotional and cognitive experiences in such experiments as the Blue-Eyed versus the Brown-Eyed can have a long-term influence on behaviors and attitudes of participants especially when they are made to play the role of a stigmatized group (Biddle, 2013). Normally, blue-eyes isnt an insult. She and her husband, Darald Elliott, then a grocer, have four children, and they, too, felt a backlash. The blue-eyed brown-eyed experiment was conducted by Jane Elliott, a school teacher from Iowa, in which she separated blue eyed children from brown eyed children and took turns making one of the "superior" to the other. In doing the research for my book with scores of peoples who were participants in the experiment, I reached out to Elliott. The mainstream media were complicit in advancing such a simplistic narrative. A difference as simple as eye color, defined and established by the authority figure, created a rift between the students. ISBN 9780520382268. On Thursday, April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, TN. 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 . "You have to put the exercise in the context of the rest of the year. "On an airplane, it is," Elliott said to appreciative laughter from the studio audience. In Jane Elliott's experiment she made the third graders believe that the blue eyed people were better,than the brown eyed people. Jane Elliott (ne Jennison; born on November 30, 1933) is an American diversity educator.As a schoolteacher, she became known for her "Blue eyes/Brown eyes" exercise, which she first conducted with her third-grade class on April 5, 1968, the day after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. She then told them that the children with blue eyes were inherently inferior to the children with brown . This is the phrase that inspired one of the most well-known experiments in education. Thus, the dominant group, supported by the authorities, will always have the upper hand. (Byrnes & Kiger, 1992). Elliott flew to the NBC studio in New York City. 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. Before proceeding with the test, she began with random questions to fully understand the children's perception of Negroes. APA principles acknowledge that individuals rights to privacy, self-determination, and confidentiality is paramount to all psychological activities. It's cruel to white children and will cause them great psychological damage. The more melanin, the darker the person's eyesand the smarter the person. "We give our children shots to inoculate them against polio and smallpox, to protect them against the realities in the future. The results are mixed. 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. They gossiped about her in the hallway. 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. She noticed that student relationships had changed; even if students were friendly outside of the exercise, they treated each other with arrogance or bossiness once the roles were assigned. Elliotts coworkers avoided her after her appearance on The Tonight Show. The blue-eyed participants faced discrimination for two and a half hours. ", We backed out. On Friday, April 5, 1968, in Riceville, IA, a third-grade student walked . [White people] on the other hand, don't have to understand them. ", A chorus of "Yeahs" went up, and so began one of the most astonishing exercises ever conducted in an American classroom. Mental Sandboxes and Their Usefulness in Today's World, The Law of Reversed Effort: When Taking Action Isn't the Best Option. About Press Copyright Contact us Creators Advertise Developers Terms Privacy Policy & Safety How YouTube works Test new features NFL Sunday Ticket Press Copyright . "Malinda? One caller complained that white children would not be able to handle the exercise and would be seriously damaged by the exercise. Delivery in 6+ hours! She then made the blue-eyed students believe that they were better and smarter than their counterparts. Issues such as the right to know, the right to privacy, and informed consent. They were forced to sit on the back rows and had to use a . A smart blue-eyed girl who had never had problems with multiplication tables started making mistakes. (She prefers the term "exercise.") The Hangout Bar & Grill, the Riceville Pharmacy and ATouch of Dutch, a restaurant owned by Mennonites, line Main Street. Even though some of the children said yes, Elliott pushed back. Blue-eyed children got five extra minutes of recess. We use them to divide and destroy people., On Understanding The Different Ways We Treat Other Races, Philip Zimbardo (Biography + Experiments). Copyright 20102023, The Conversation Media Group Ltd. The basic idea was to separate the class into two halves, students with blue eyes and those with brown. 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 . Everyone looked at Mrs. Elliott. 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 brown-eyed children didnt want to play with the blue-eyes during recess. Jane Elliott, Creator of the "Blue/Brown Eyes" Experiment, Says Racism Is Easy To Fix. Although Jane Elliot's intentions were to teach the youngsters about racism, ethical issues related to the simulation were raised. In 2001, Jane Elliott recordedThe Angry Eye,in which she revised and updated her experiment. Want a quality guarantee? "That you, Ms. Sadly, these conversations are still relevant today. 980 Words. Your Privacy Rights 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. Now 45, she had been in Elliott's third grade class in 1969. "Black children grow up accustomed to such behavior, but white children, there's no way they could possibly understand it. Jane Elliots work and experiences have made her an authority on education and anti-racism. On the second day of the experiment, Elliott switched the childrens roles. She repeated the abuse with subsequent classes, and finally turned it into a fully commercial enterprise. 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 2001, she was still trying to make a change. ", Others have praised Elliott's exercise. Given the long-term results of the experiment, the controversial study could not have taken place in today's society despite its significant insights on matters racism. In the case of any doubt, it's best to consult a trusted specialist. 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. 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. Considering all the stereotypes and prejudices that exist, what kind of damage is being done? Yes, that day was tough. She told her students that she had made a mistake the previous day and that brown-eyed students . Hire a professional with VAST experience! 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. 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. 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. . . She split the class in two categories, according to eye color, and told the children that one group was superior to the others. 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 . The blue-eyed participants faced discrimination for two and a half hours. She could feel a chasm forming between the two groups of students. 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. Elliott split her students into two groups, based on eye color. They embraced the experiments reductive message, as well as its promised potential, thereby keeping the implausible rationale of Elliotts crusade alive and well for decades, however flawed and racist it really was. Role Theory: Expectations, Identities, and Behaviors. In fact, most of the initial response was negative. Blue Eyes, Brown Eyes offers an intimate portrait of the insular community where Elliott grew up and conducted the experiment on the town's children for more than a decade. Professor Jane Elliott performed a group experiment with her students that they would never forget. 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. Throughout the day, Elliott continued to give the children with blue eyes special treatment. 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. Elliott began the exercise by dividing her students by eye color. "Blue-eyed people sit around and do nothing. One student answers, since the day I was born. Throughout the entire experiment, Elliott leads frank conversations about race and discrimination. The brown-eyed children felt suddenly that they were discriminated, while the blue eyed started seeing them as inferior. Pasicznyk joined 75 other employees for a training session in the companys suburban Denver headquarters in the late 1980s. March 26, 1985. The second day, Elliott reversed the groups. Brown-eyed people, she told the students, are smarter, more civilized and better than blue-eyed people. The next day, Elliott reversed the roles. 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 experiment to demonstrate . Focusing on ethics the experiment violated some of the principles and codes of conduct established by the American Psychological Association. one girl asked. 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. You didnt understand the directions. On the first day, the blue-eyed students were informed that they were genetically inferior to the brown-eyed students. When she went downtown to do errands, she heard whispers. One caller complained that white children would not be able to handle . Knowing that her experiment would have consequences, Jane remained committed to her course. Decent Essays. Separate the class into two halves - those with blue eyes and those with brown. Some people feel we can't move on when you have her out there hawking her 30-year-old experiment. 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. Elliot wanted to show that the same thing happens in real life with brown eyed people (minority). She also made the brown-eyed students put construction paper armbands on the blue-eyed students. It's the Jane Elliott machine. They all either smiled or laughed and nodded.". Elliott pulled out green construction paper armbands and asked each of the blue-eyed kids to wear one. At points, you are likely to feel uncomfortable. Or alternatively you may decide to keep them in ignorance of what is happening. Then a picture was taken to remember. 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. "Would you like to come on the show?" How can put those little children through that exercise for a day? And they seem unable to relate the sympathy that theyre feeling for these little white children for a day to what happens to children of color in this society for a lifetime or to the fact that they are doing this to children based on skin color every day. 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. Not everyone appreciated Elliotts exercise. Though Jane's actions were justifiable because she was not a psychologist, her experiment cannot be replicated in the present society. Elliott asked her students to write about their experiences for the local newspaper. They are cleaner than blue-eyed people. At her lunch break that day in the teacher's lounge, she told her colleagues about the exercise. 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. One of the main ones was the fact that their right to withdraw was taken away from them. "Not one of them reprimanded her for that or even corrected her. In her article, Peggy McIntosh compares the "white privilege" to an invisible set of unearned rewards and . The brown-eyed people were told to step to the front of the line. Jane Elliot's 'The Blue Eyes and Brown Eyes Experiment' was unethical in that she created a segregated environment in a third grade classroom. From the moment the experiment begins, Jane Elliott uses a mean tone to speak to the participants. Despite the adaptation of the experiment in psychological studies, Jane has been widely criticized for her unethical conduct and promotion of discrimination among children. "She taught in this school for 18 years." One group consisted pupils with brown eye while the other group consisted of those with blue eyes. SYNOPSIS OF BLUE EYED. The smell of the crops and loam and topsoil and manure wafted though the open door. The latter felt discriminated against by the other brown-eyed children. The secretary said the south side of the building was closed, something about waxing the hallways. 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. The children said yes, and the exercise began. Sign up for Politics Weekly.]. I felt like hitting them if I wanted to. 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 also documents small-town White America's reflex reaction to the . The story was then picked up by the Associated Press. 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." Elliott instructed the blue-eyed kids not to play on the jungle gym or swings. Jane Elliott's experiment. ", That spring morning 37 years ago, the blue-eyed children were set apart from the children with brown or green eyes. Within a few hours of starting the exercise, Elliott noticed big differences in the childrens behavior and how they treated each other. 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 interaction only strengthened Elliott's resolve. "Hey, Mrs. Elliott," Steven yelled as he slung his books on his desk. That's not true. Thats how it started, and thats how it went all day long. In this photograph from Sept. 13, 1965, Black children on their way to school in New York City pass by segregationists protesting integrated busing. 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. ", 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?". On the morning of april 5, 1968, a Friday, Steven Armstrong stepped into Jane Elliott's third-grade classroom in Riceville, Iowa. Many critics that the children were too young to understand the exercise. The episode features with new footage of the students, who are now adults. "We want to see Room No. "Probably because they have been taught how they're treated in this country that they have to understand us. I'm tired of hearing about her and her experiment and how everyone here is a racist. The hate and discrimination that we see in adults have their origin in their upbringing.
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