Sorry, but it's not possible to copy the text due to security reasons. "Blue-eyed people sit around and do nothing. 1. The selection was based on the color of the eye for each group. Brian, the Elliotts' oldest son, got beaten up at school, and Jane called the ringleader's, mother. ERIC - ED300491 - Ethical and Pedagogical Issues in the Use of ISBN 9780520382268. Brown Eyes or Blue: A Social Experiment - Soapboxie Elliott created the blue-eyes/brown-eyes classroom exercise in 1968 to teach students about racism. Elliott turned into Americas mother of diversity training. PracticalPsychology. This was intentional. A Class Divided - Wikipedia Two Important Psychological Experiments: The Blue Eye/Brown Eye and 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. The demonstration has since been taught by generations of teachers to millions of kids across the country. PPT The Ethics of Using Human Participants - University of New Mexico January 1, 2003. Thus, the dominant group, supported by the authorities, will always have the upper hand. "We just want to peek in," I volunteered. he asked. 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. She knew that the children weren't going to buy her pitch unless she came up with a reason, and the more scientific to these Space Age children of the 1960s, the better. We use them to divide and destroy people., On Understanding The Different Ways We Treat Other Races, Philip Zimbardo (Biography + Experiments). Grasping for a scientific explanation, she ended up claiming that melanin makes eyes darker, and makes . 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. The mainstream media were complicit in advancing such a simplistic narrative. 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. Withdrawn brown-eyed kids were suddenly outgoing, some beaming with the widest smiles she had ever seen on them. I interviewed Julie Pasicznyk, who had been working for US West, a giant telecommunications company in Minneapolis. It also documents small-town White America's reflex reaction to the . There is a way to avoid editing or writing from scratch! All rights reserved. Solve your problem differently! ", A chorus of "Yeahs" went up, and so began one of the most astonishing exercises ever conducted in an American classroom. ", We stopped on Woodlawn Avenue, and a woman in her mid-40s approached us on the sidewalk. ", 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?". 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. Jane Elliot's 'The Blue Eyes and Brown Eyes Experiment' was unethical in that she created a segregated environment in a third grade classroom. Two years later, a BBC documentary captured the experiment in Elliott's classroom. In doing the research for my book with scores of peoples who were participants in the experiment, I reached out to Elliott. The searing story is a cautionary tale that examines power and privilege in and out of the classroom. Elliott was shocked by the results and decided to switch the roles the following day. But the protests happening now have given her hope. In fact, most of the initial response was negative. Brown-eyed people, she told the students, are smarter, more civilized and better than blue-eyed people. Biddle, B. J. One caller complained that white children would not be able to handle . "Would you like to come on the show?" The fact that children are easy to manipulate into acting in a particular manner explains Jane's choice of sample. One of the main ones was the fact that their right to withdraw was taken away from them. 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. Is your time best spent reading someone elses essay? . "Let me look at you," Elliott said. The experiment, known as Blue Eyes Brown Eyes experiment, is regarded as an eye-opening way for children to learn about racism and discrimination. 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. "Why?" Jane Elliott's Blue Eyes and Brown Eyes experiment was a turning point in social psychology. When Differences Matter | Facing History and Ourselves 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. Multi-Problem Adolescents: An Increasing Problem, Professor Jane Elliott performed a group experiment, the current problems related to discrimination. SpeedyPaper website, please click below to request its removal: Liked this essay sample but need an original one? What can be changed to make the blue eyes and brown eyes experiment From Elliot's highly controversial experiment it is clear that prejudice and discrimination can only be understood through experience. A Teacher's Report on 'a Class Divided' a Pbs Film: Teaching But not Elliott. 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. Why was the Blue Eyes and Brown Eyes Experiment considered - Study To back up my statement Bloom (2005) says Jane Elliott's blue-eyes brown-eyes exercise encouraged children to mistrust authority figures. Elliott instructed the blue-eyed kids not to play on the jungle gym or swings. The Associated Press followed up, quoting Elliott as saying she was "dumbfounded" by the exercise's effectiveness. Written and verified by the psychologist Francisco Roballo. Problems with this research were that it went against a lot of ethical issues. Elliott? 9 Unethical Psychological Experiments That Actually Happened We Are Repeating The Discrimination Experiment Every Day, Says - NPR "People of other color groups seem to understand," she said. This paradigm helps understand the current problems related to discrimination. Though Jane's actions were justifiable because she was not a psychologist, her experiment cannot be replicated in the present society. people are better than blue-eyed people. She continued to conduct the exercise with her third graders. 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 the brown eyed/blue eyed experiment Jane Elliot told her third graders with blue eyes that they were better than the brown-eyed children. She has since refused to answer any of my inquiries. The hate and discrimination that we see in adults have their origin in their upbringing. ", Others have praised Elliott's exercise. Jane Elliott has done a lot of reflection about the consequences of the minimal group experiment. Want a quality guarantee? "Hey, Mrs. Elliott," Steven yelled as he slung his books on his desk. One teacher ended up displaying the same bigotry Elliott had spent the morning trying to fight. This was the smaller group. To understand racism, kids must empathise with its impact and It was typical of Elliott's blunt styleno "Good morning," no small talk. They also harassed them constantly. The secretary said the south side of the building was closed, something about waxing the hallways. Let's just move on. Jane Elliott, the American schoolmarm who would rid us of our racism To Kill A Mockingbird Quotes - 1072 Words | Internet Public Library Not only were they fewer in numbers, but the authority figure was against them. It also shows how arbitrary and subjective things can turn friends, family members, and citizens against each other. (PDF) A Class Divided - ResearchGate Blue Eyes Brown Eyes - Jane Elliott | Practical Psychology And what she did caused an uproar. She slumped. She decided to continue the exercise with her students after lunch. 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. It was the day after Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in 1968 that Elliott ran her first "Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes" exercise in her Riceville, Iowa classroom. Elliott separated her all-white class of students into two groups: blue-eyed children and brown-eyed children. 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. PDF TRAUMA-RELATED PSYCHOLOGY EXPERIMENTS - Boston University ", Elliott says the role of a teacher is to enhance students' moral development. Thats just the way blue-eyed kids were, Elliott told the students. She believed that experience was the only way her students could understand how it felt like to be discriminated. "There's a sense of renewal here that I've never seen anywhere else," Elliott says. She also made the brown-eyed students put construction paper armbands on the blue-eyed students. The Brown Eyed / Blue Eyed Experiment - 980 Words | Bartleby Module 2 Discussion_ Are We Still Divided_ Blue Eyes_Brown Eyes_ A 3rd The experiment is to help the children to understand about prejudice and discrimination. Jane Elliott, a teacher and anti-racism activist, performed a direct experiment with the students in her classroom. Her class, Melanin, she said, is what causes intelligence. They didnt need to engage with a single Black person. . She has made statements about the increase in hate crimes and racism in recent years. 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. "Mention two wordsJane Elliottand you get a flood of emotions from people," says Jim Cross, the Riceville Recorder's editor these days. (2013). ", 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. 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. 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 first day of the experiment she convinced the children that blue-eyed people were smarter, better and would have more priorities. At lunchtime, Elliott hurried to the teachers' lounge. 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. Thousands of educators across the United States folded the experiment into their curriculums. In the 60s, the United States was in the midst of a social race crisis. 10," Elliott said. Most Riceville residents seem to have an opinion of Elliott, whether or not they've met her. Separate the class into two halves - those with blue eyes and those with brown. In 2001, Jane Elliott recordedThe Angry Eye,in which she revised and updated her experiment. 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 following are some of her most insightful quotes on these issues. . Today, she says, it's still playing out as the U.S. reckons with racial injustice. This meeting, along with other clips of the exercises impact on education, is featured in a PBS documentary called A Class Divided. Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER! The Blue Eyes and Brown Eyes Experiment - Studocu The Anti-Racism Exercise That Taught Kids to Be Racist - Gizmodo But Paul, one of eight siblings and the son of a dairy farmer, didnt buy Elliotts mollification. . Elliott began the exercise by dividing her students by eye color. On April 4 1968, King was killed by the single . Elliotts coworkers avoided her after her appearance on The Tonight Show. At her lunch break that day in the teacher's lounge, she told her colleagues about the exercise. 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 . Blue eyes, brown eyes: What Jane Elliott's famous experiment says about race 50 years on. Then tell them that . Then a picture was taken to remember. Now 45, she had been in Elliott's third grade class in 1969. Articles and opinions on happiness, fear and other aspects of human psychology. 2012 2023 . Hire a professional with VAST experience! Some people feel we can't move on when you have her out there hawking her 30-year-old experiment. I often think about Paul Bodensteiner. The Daring Racism Experiment That People Still Talk About 20 - HuffPost one girl asked. They all either smiled or laughed and nodded.". 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. Grey eyes are also a rare eye color. She told the students that the brown-eyed children were inferior and repeated the experiment. Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER! 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. With a couple of basic and arbitrary examples, Elliott made the case that brown-eyed people were better. 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. "I don't think this community was ready for what she did," he said. Elliott said that blue-eyed people were less intelligent and less clean. ", Vision and tenacity may get results, but they don't always endear a person to her neighbors. The Brown Eyed / Blue Eyed Experiment. The documentary has become a popular teaching tool among teachers, business owners, and even employees at correctional facilities. "On an airplane, it is," Elliott said to appreciative laughter from the studio audience. One example that has been in place for many years is the blue-eyed/brown-eyed experiment. As a journalism professor and author of a book on race that spans more than 50 years, Ive watched these developments with great concern. She asked them if they would like to experience what it felt like to be in a person of colors shoes. One key assumption is that the sample population represents an actual society. What Was the Purpose of the Blue Eyes Brown Eyes Experiment? 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. "They can't forget me," she said, "and because of who they are, they can't forgive me. They were forced to sit on the back rows and had to use a . Elliott shared the essays with her mother, who showed them to the editor of the weekly Riceville Recorder. At first, she cooperated with me. Or alternatively you may decide to keep them in ignorance of what is happening. The musical is about romance, but it integrates issues of race and discrimination (Norris, 2014), and the song is about how discrimination is taught carefully, in long term. Blue-eyed people. Today, increased migration means more opportunities for people from different backgrounds to interact with each other, which is often a source of conflict.