In this article, we talk about leadership and female discrimination.. 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. ", 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 could feel a chasm forming between the two groups of students. Evaluation of Jane Elliott's "Blue-Eyed Brown-Eyes" They are more civilized than blue-eyed people. Her bold experiment to teach Iowa third graders about racial prejudice divided townspeople and thrust her onto the national stage. Everyone looked at Mrs. Elliott. She told them that people with brown eyes were better than people with blue eyes. When she separated the class by eye color and announced that blue-eyed children were superior, Paul Bodensteiner objected at every turn. Elliott pulled out green construction paper armbands and asked each of the blue-eyed kids to wear one. When you read about this experiment, its hard not to question labels. Brown eyes and blue eyes Racism experiment Children Session - Jane Hire a professional with VAST experience! They felt superior and had the support of the authority figure (the teacher). They killed hundreds of thousands of people based on eye color alone, thats the reason I used eye color for my determining factor that day., Elliott divided the class into children with blue eyes and children with brown eyes. Youve probably heard different versions of it. Considering all the stereotypes and prejudices that exist, what kind of damage is being done? 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. 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. Essay Sample: Ethical Concerns in Jane Elliot's Experiment. The act of treating students differently was obviously a metaphor for the social decisions made on a larger level. I felt mad. "No person of any age [was] going to leave my presence with those attitudes unchallenged," Elliott said. Grasping for a scientific explanation, she ended up claiming that melanin makes eyes darker, and makes . While Jane Elliot's experiment makes several assumptions, it also has some ethical concerns. Brown-eyed people, she told the students, are smarter, more civilized and better than blue-eyed people. . The story was then picked up by the Associated Press. Thats just the way blue-eyed kids were, Elliott told the students. Elliott was shocked by the results and decided to switch the roles the following day. The ethical concerns arising from the experiment are consent and deception. Many of them noted that when they hear prejudice and discrimination from others, they wish they could whip out those collars and give them the experience they had as third graders. With over 2 million YouTube subscribers, over 500 articles, and an annual reach of almost 12 million students, it has become one of the most popular sources of psychological information. A columnist at a Denver newspaper called it "evil. This is the phrase that inspired one of the most well-known experiments in education. "Maybe the way to sell the exercise would have been to invite the parents in, to talk about what she'd be doing. And what she did caused an uproar. One scholar asserts that it is "Orwellian" and teaches whites "self-contempt." Website. Carson asked, grinning. 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 . 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. Answer (1 of 3): My guess is that is doesn't really represent racism but classism. 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. Elliott was even brought on The Tonight Show to talk about her experiences. That got the other teachers angry. From the University of California Press website: 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. 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. 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. Theyd have to use paper cups if they drank from the water fountain. Children often fight, argue, and sometimes hit each other, but this time they were motivated by eye color. She traveled to corporations, banks, prisons, schools and military bases. Jane elliots the blue eyes and brown eyes experiment - Course Hero The Blue Eye/Brown Eye was an experiment performed by Jane Elliot in 1968 on the day after Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. PPT The Ethics of Using Human Participants - University of New Mexico Jane Elliot's Famous Classroom Experiment: How Eye Color - Thriveworks Everyone's tired of her. She also made the brown-eyed students put construction paper armbands on the blue-eyed students. She then made the blue-eyed students believe that they were better and smarter than their counterparts. The minimal group paradigm has shaped an entire methodology in social psychology. The study also violates the American Principles of Psychologist codes of conduct making its replication or further investigation unethical. 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. A Class Divided: An Experiment Involving Race and Prejudice Jane Elliot's experiment explains the reasons for discrimination to a small extent. Blue Eyes, Brown Eyes by Stephen G. Bloom - Hardcover - University of The documentary has become a popular teaching tool among teachers, business owners, and even employees at correctional facilities. "She stirs people up. 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. She slumped. Or alternatively you may decide to keep them in ignorance of what is happening. It is a must . "She got carried away by this possession she developed over human beings. Elliott and I were sitting at her dining room table. The three outcomes are: (1) virtually all of the subjects reported that the experience was One of the most famous experiments in education Jane Elliott's "blue eyes, brown eyes" separation of her third grade students to teach them about prejudice was very different from what the public was told, as revealed in this excerpt from the in-depth story about what really happened in that classroom. Order original essays online. Traditionally, society has always treated leadership as a male issue. On the first day, the blue-eyed students were informed that they were genetically inferior to the brown-eyed students. 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. One teacher ended up displaying the same bigotry Elliott had spent the morning trying to fight. As the morning wore on, brown-eyed kids berated their blue-eyed classmates. American Psychological Association, 4. 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 . She told them that people with brown eyes were superior to those with blue eyes, for reasons she made up. Ethics + Religion; Health; Politics + Society; . 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. To Kill A Mockingbird Quotes - 1072 Words | Internet Public Library Though Jane's actions were justifiable because she was not a psychologist, her experiment cannot be replicated in the present society. The blue eye brown eye experiment. Blue Eyes and Brown Eyes: The Jane That's not true. Consequently, the brown-eyed children started using blue-eyes as an insult. . On the "Tonight Show" Carson broke the ice by spoofing Elliott's rural roots. The next day when the tables were turned, "I felt like quitting school. Elliott said that blue-eyed people were less intelligent and less clean. Blue-eyed children got five extra minutes of recess. She pointed out flaws in a student and associated it with . "She taught in this school for 18 years." Focusing on ethics the experiment violated some of the principles and codes of conduct established by the American Psychological Association. Delivery in 6+ hours! A smart blue-eyed girl who had never had problems with multiplication tables started making mistakes. On Thursday, April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, TN. Her class, Jane Elliott's Blue Eyes and Brown Eyes experiment was a turning point in social psychology. She told the students that the brown-eyed children were inferior and repeated the experiment. The contents of Exploring Your Mind are for informational and educational purposes only. "How dare you try this cruel experiment out on white children," one said. Elliott reminded them that the reason for the lesson was the King assassination, and she asked them to write down what they had learned. "Would you like to come on the show?" In this scenario, students are told brown-eyed people . 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." She then told them that the children with blue eyes were inherently inferior to the children with brown . Words are the most powerful weapon devised by humankind. One caller complained that white children would not be able to handle the exercise and would be seriously damaged by the exercise.