Mental Floss, 4. The hate and discrimination that we see in adults have their origin in their upbringing. After the exercise white college students in . But Paul, one of eight siblings and the son of a dairy farmer, didnt buy Elliotts mollification. "Well, what do you expect from him, Mrs. Elliott," a brown-eyed student said as a blue-eyed student got an arithmetic problem wrong. Introduction. What Was the Purpose of the Blue Eyes Brown Eyes Experiment? However, in this classroom, having blue-eyes had become a condition of inferiority. Elliott, who is white, separated the students into two groupsthose with blue eyes and those with brown eyes. One scholar asserts that it is "Orwellian" and teaches whites "self-contempt." This procedure is sometimes so subtle that no one notices it happening. "It's happening every day in this country, right now," she said in an interview with Morning Edition. (She prefers the term "exercise.") The act of treating students differently was obviously a metaphor for the social decisions made on a larger level. 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. Ethics + Religion; Health; Politics + Society; . The more melanin, the darker the person's eyesand the smarter the person. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Kellen Castineiras PSY Dr. Gail C. Flanagan February 6, 2022. . After recess that day, the brown-eyed children complained that they were . In the early morning, dew and fog cover the acres of gently swaying stalks that surround Riceville the way water surrounds an island. I was stunned. How do you think the world would change if everyone experienced the perils and setbacks that come with prejudice and discrimination? Before proceeding with the test, she began with random questions to fully understand the children's perception of Negroes. The experiment is to help the children to understand about prejudice and discrimination. That says very plainly that you know whats happening, you know you dont want it for you. (Byrnes & Kiger, 1992). 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 said she watched and was horrified at what she saw. "That you, Ms. The tallest structure in Riceville is the water tower. Though Jane's actions were justifiable because she was not a psychologist, her experiment cannot be replicated in the present society. 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. Many critics that the children were too young to understand the exercise. You give them something nice and they just wreck it." Watch it online right now! Knowing that her experiment would have consequences, Jane remained committed to her course. Website. Terms of Use Today, increased migration means more opportunities for people from different backgrounds to interact with each other, which is often a source of conflict. Unfortunately, you cant copy samples. 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. Retrieved from https://speedypaper.com/essays/ethical-concerns-in-jane-elliots-experiment, Free essays can be submitted by anyone, so we do not vouch for their quality. She has . She told her students that she had made a mistake the previous day and that brown-eyed students . The secretary said the south side of the building was closed, something about waxing the hallways. January 1, 2003. Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER! You should be happy! Elliott pulled out green construction paper armbands and asked each of the blue . 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. Jane Elliott, Creator of the "Blue/Brown Eyes" Experiment, Says Racism Is Easy To Fix. The next day, Elliott reversed the roles. "They are cleaner and they are smarter.". Charity is humiliating because its exercised vertically and from above; solidarity is horizontal and implies mutual respect.. Her class, Little children don't like uproar in the classroom. 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. Privacy Statement She appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show five times. This way, she successfully created two distinct groups in her classroom: The consequences of the minimal group became evident very quickly. She decided to continue the exercise with her students after lunch. Elliott asked. Was The Blue Eyes Brown Eyes Experiment Ethical? You can contribute to that positive change by watching the documentary. those with brown eyes (or hazel eyes). 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. Elliott separated her all-white class of students into two groups: blue-eyed children and brown-eyed children. one girl asked. ", Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images, now-famous "blue eyes/brown eyes exercise, 'I See These Conversations As Protective': Talking With Kids About Race. Elliott shared the essays with her mother, who showed them to the editor of the weekly Riceville Recorder. 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 . Part of the problem is that the blue-eyed group is exclusively white, while the brown-eyed group is predominantly non-white, so that eye colour is no longer an analogue or metaphor for race but a . ", "I've never forgotten the exercise," Whisenhunt volunteered. As Elliott recalls, she engineered the "blue eyes/brown eyes exercise" in 1968 after watching the late-night news cycle announce the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Rather than be deterred by possible Fourteen years later, the students featured in The Eye of the Storm reunited and discussed their experiences with Elliott. "People of other color groups seem to understand," she said. Solve your problem differently! Proceeding with the experiment, Elliot divided the children into two groups each with nine pupils. 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. "If this ugly change, if this negative change can happen this quickly, why can't positive change happen that quickly? 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. 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. In 1970, Elliott would come to national attention when ABC broadcast their Eye of the Storm documentary which filmed the experiment in action. "Do blue-eyed people remember what they've been taught?" Dick DeMarsico/New York World-Telegram & the Sun Newspaper Photograph Collection/PhotoQuest/Getty Images, Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images, Committee Member - MNF Research Advisory Committee, PhD Scholarship - Uncle Isaac Brown Indigenous Scholarship. 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. 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. 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. Researchers later concluded that there was evidence that the students became less prejudiced after the study and that it was inconclusive as to whether or not the potential harm outweighed the benefits of the exercise. Did they know what it was like to be discriminated against? We dont have to learn about those who are other than white. "I think these children walked in a colored child's moccasins for a day," she was quoted as saying. The brown-eyed children didnt want to play with the blue-eyes during recess. 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. This meeting, along with other clips of the exercises impact on education, is featured in a PBS documentary called A Class Divided. She repeated the abuse with subsequent classes, and finally turned it into a fully commercial enterprise. 5/21/2020 Topic: Module 2 Discussion: "It would be hard to know, wouldn't it, unless we actually experienced discrimination ourselves. "I don't think this community was ready for what she did," he said. Jane Elliot's experiment involves cheating and intentional misinterpretation of facts. 4. But Elliotts experiment had a more sinister impact. These initial criticisms didnt stop Elliott. Focusing on ethics the experiment violated some of the principles and codes of conduct established by the American Psychological Association. Decent Essays. Blue-eyed students suggested that the teacher use a yardstick to discipline brown-eyed students that misbehaved. "She could get kids to do anything she wanted them to," he says of Elliott. Grey eyes are also a rare eye color. When some of the . Sadly, these conversations are still relevant today. The mainstream media were complicit in advancing such a simplistic narrative. The nearest traffic light is 20 miles away. ABC broadcast a documentary about her work. But when she discovered that I was asking pointed questions of scores of her former students, as well as others subjected to the experiment, she made an about-face and said she no longer would cooperate with me. The first day of the experiment she convinced the children that blue-eyed people were smarter, better and would have more priorities. Many critics that the children were too young to understand the exercise. Jane Elliott's Blue-Eyed versus Brown-Eyed Students experiment was conducted to determine whether racism was a learned characteristic. Children with brown eyes were forced to wear armbands that made it easy for people to see that they had brown eyes. See Page 1. It has since evolved into an online blog and YouTube channel providing mental health advice, tools, and academic support to individuals from all backgrounds. [White people] on the other hand, don't have to understand them. The test also included violation of consent in which participation of the children was made involuntarily. The Associated Press followed up, quoting Elliott as saying she was "dumbfounded" by the exercise's effectiveness. 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. That's not true. "You better apologize to us for getting in our way because we're better than you are," one of the brownies said. She gave all of the students simple spelling and math tests two weeks before the exercise, on the days of the exercise, and after the exercise. The subjects were 164 students enrolled in eight sections of an introductory elementary education course at a state university. Professor of Journalism, University of Iowa. Even family members can turn against each other if some authority suddenly decides that those differences are a problem. 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.". We walked into the principal's office at RicevilleElementary School, Elliott's old haunt. In a grassy front yard down the block is a hand-lettered sign: "Glads for Sale, 3 for $1." Jane Elliott's Blue Eyes and Brown Eyes experiment was a turning point in social psychology. The goal of the minimal group paradigm is to establish subjective differences and create a climate of favoritism. All rights reserved. New York: Elsevier Science. Could you?". One of the ways Hitler decided who went into the gas chamber was eye color, Elliott said in a later speech. She told the students that the brown-eyed children were inferior and repeated the experiment. "There's a sense of renewal here that I've never seen anywhere else," Elliott says. They don't replace the diagnosis, advice, or treatment of a professional. "She said, on the day after Martin Luther King Jr. was killed, 'I don't know why you're doing that I thought it was about time somebody shot that son of a bitch,' " she said. Some guidelines for avoiding or reducing this effect are: In conclusion, Jane Elliotts experiment demonstrates the fragility of coexistence and cooperation. View Module 2 Discussion_ Are We Still Divided_ Blue Eyes_Brown Eyes_ A 3rd Grade Lesson for Us All.pdf from HUMN 330 at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. I felt mad. "On an airplane, it is," Elliott said to appreciative laughter from the studio audience. This paradigm helps understand the current problems related to discrimination. "It's Riceville 30 years ago. 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. Consequently, the brown-eyed children started using blue-eyes as an insult. This time, the participants werent a bunch of elementary school children they were young adults.
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