To begin with, Jane Elliot's experiment involved deception in which the children were made in believing that change in eye color influence intelligence. 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. According to the Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct, 2010 the experiment also violates the principle of Integrity. The corn grows so fast in northern Iowafrom seedling to seven-foot-high stalk in 12 weeksthat it crackles. Focusing on ethics the experiment violated some of the principles and codes of conduct established by the American Psychological Association. The next day when the tables were turned, "I felt like quitting school. 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. On Monday, Elliott reversed the exercise, and the brown-eyed kids were told how shifty, dumb and lazy theywere. Scores of others did participate. Her class, In Jane Elliott's experiment she made the third graders believe that the blue eyed people were better,than the brown eyed people. One group consisted pupils with brown eye while the other group consisted of those with blue eyes. Mental Sandboxes and Their Usefulness in Today's World, The Law of Reversed Effort: When Taking Action Isn't the Best Option. ", "I've never forgotten the exercise," Whisenhunt volunteered. Thats what it feels like when youre discriminated against., -A child participant in the Blue Eyes-Brown Eyes experiment-. A smart blue-eyed girl who had never had problems with multiplication tables started making mistakes. If brown-eyed children made a mistake, Elliott would call out the mistake and attribute it to the students brown eyes. She gave the blue-eyed students an armband so other students could more easily identify them, and then she told her class that it was a scientific fact that people with brown eyes are smarter than those with blue because their bodies had more . "I think third grade was too young for what she did. 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. And you'll always have it. Jane Elliott on The Tonight Show on May 31, 1968. Not a day goes by without me thinking about it, Ms. Elliott. The interaction only strengthened Elliott's resolve. Blue Eye/Brown Eye is an experiment performed by Jane Elliot in 1968 on the day after Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated to demonstrate what prejudice was to her third grade class. 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. "Why?" . 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. Jane Elliot's experiment involves cheating and intentional misinterpretation of facts. Elliot wanted to show that the same thing happens in real life with brown eyed people (minority). If this arbitrary division that Elliott enforced for a few hours created so many problems in this classroom, whats happening on a larger scale? Looking back, I think part of the problem was that, like the residents of other small midwestern towns I've covered, many in Riceville felt that calling attention to oneself was poor manners, and that Elliott had shone a bright light not just on herself but on Riceville; people all over the United States would think Riceville was full of bigots. After the exercise white college students in . 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. Fourteen years later, the students featured in The Eye of the Storm reunited and discussed their experiences with Elliott. Its goal was to demonstrate what prejudice was to her third grade class. "It changed my life. ", Absolutely not. Jane Elliots work and experiences have made her an authority on education and anti-racism. "Because we might catch something," a brown-eyed boy said. 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. Jane Elliott, shown here in 2009, remains an outspoken advocate against racism. At recess, three brown-eyed girls ganged up on her. Exploring your mind Blog about psychology and philosophy. In this documentary, Jane Elliott, a third grade teacher divided her class into two groups based on their eye color; one group had blue eyes and the other had brown eyes. "It's happening every day in this country, right now," she said in an interview with Morning Edition. She has since refused to answer any of my inquiries. March 26, 1985. I felt mad. They all either smiled or laughed and nodded.". ", Jane shielded her eyes from the morning sun. Watch it online right now! Proceeding with the experiment, Elliot divided the children into two groups each with nine pupils. "We give our children shots to inoculate them against polio and smallpox, to protect them against the realities in the future. Jane Elliott's Blue Eyes and Brown Eyes experiment was a turning point in social psychology. 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. Before proceeding with the test, she began with random questions to fully understand the children's perception of Negroes. Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER! Its not surprising to anyone that some social groups discriminate against others due to ethnicity, religion, or culture. 1. "There's a sense of renewal here that I've never seen anywhere else," Elliott says. Elliott began the exercise by dividing her students by eye color. Knowing that her experiment would have consequences, Jane remained committed to her course. Days after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., she pioneered an experiment to show her all-white class of third graders what it was like to be Black in America. The Brown Eyed / Blue Eyed Experiment. The basic idea was to separate the class into two halves, students with blue eyes and those with brown. Jane Elliott, a teacher and anti-racism activist, performed a direct experiment with the students in her classroom. This paradigm helps understand the current problems related to discrimination. "Mention two wordsJane Elliottand you get a flood of emotions from people," says Jim Cross, the Riceville Recorder's editor these days. She also made the brown-eyed students put construction paper armbands on the blue-eyed students. The act of treating students differently was obviously a metaphor for the social decisions made on a larger level. 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. Many educators responded by holding mandatory workshops on institutional racism and implicit bias, reforming teaching methods and lesson plans and searching for ways to amplify undersung voices. Keep me from judging a man until I have walked a mile in his moccasins. This is a Sioux saying. Is it even possible today? In her article, Peggy McIntosh compares the "white privilege" to an invisible set of unearned rewards and . But Elliotts experiment had a more sinister impact. Brian, the Elliotts' oldest son, got beaten up at school, and Jane called the ringleader's, mother. Then tell them that . 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 . Elliott instructed the blue-eyed kids not to play on the jungle gym or swings. 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 . She traveled to corporations, banks, prisons, schools and military bases. We dont have to learn about those who are other than white. Blue Eyes, Brown Eyes 1968 - Jane Elliot, grade school teacher in Iowa conducted a classroom experiment to test whether racism was a learned characteristic Blue Eyes, Brown Eyes - an experiment to "create racism" Jane Elliot divided her 4th grade class into two groups based on eye color The Brown eyed group were told they were superior due . Classroom experiment. She pointed out flaws in a student and associated it with . Normally, blue-eyes isnt an insult. Essay Sample: Ethical Concerns in Jane Elliot's Experiment. She has . Questioning authority The mainstream media were complicit in advancing such a simplistic narrative. There is a way to avoid editing or writing from scratch! Was The Blue Eyes Brown Eyes Experiment Ethical? Thus, the dominant group, supported by the authorities, will always have the upper hand. Sorry, but it's not possible to copy the text due to security reasons. Select from the 0 categories from which you would like to receive articles. Abstract The effectiveness of a well-known prejudice-reduction simulation, "Blue Eyes-Brown Eyes," was assessed as a tool for changing the attitudes of ncnblack teacher eduction students toward blacks. ( 1985-03-26) " A Class Divided " is a 1985 episode of the PBS series Frontline. You have the right color eyes!. 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. The results were the same. 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. Within a few hours of starting the exercise, Elliott noticed big differences in the childrens behavior and how they treated each other. 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. To this day, at the age of 86, Jane Elliott continues this work. She learned that the responses from the children were negative and more generalized about what they thought about black people. It also documents small-town White America's reflex reaction to the . Jane Elliot, a third-grade teacher from Lowa town, became troubled with the turn of events and knew that something had to be done about racial discrimination (Danko, 2013). They are more civilized than blue-eyed people. 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 . Danko, M. (2013). And Im only doing this as an exercise that every child knows is an exercise and every child knows is going to end at the end of the day., We learn to be racist, therefore we can learn not to be racist. Charity is humiliating because its exercised vertically and from above; solidarity is horizontal and implies mutual respect.. Blue Eyed versus Brown Eyed Students Jane Elliott was not a psychologist, but she developed one of the most famously controversial exercises in 1968 by dividing students into a blue-eyed group and . What Was The Blue Eyes Brown Eyes Experiment? Tears formed in the corners of Elliott's eyes. At her lunch break that day in the teacher's lounge, she told her colleagues about the exercise. She told them that people with brown eyes were better than people with blue eyes. SpeedyPaper website, please click below to request its removal: Liked this essay sample but need an original one? 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. 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. . She says that its shocking how children whore normally kind, cooperative, and friendly with each other suddenly become arrogant, discriminatory, and hostile when they belong to a superior group. 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. You didnt understand the directions. The Blue-Eyes, Brown-Eyes Experiment. These initial criticisms didnt stop Elliott. It has everything to do with power.. Ethical issues were 1/3 of the participants refused to take the head off the rat . "That's what I tried to teach, and that's what drove the other teachers crazy. Elliott's friends and family say she's tenacious, and has always had a reformer's zeal. The demonstration has since been taught by generations of teachers to millions of kids across the country. Elliott started to see her own white privilege, even her own ignorance. 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 also made the brown-eyed students put construction paper armbands on the blue-eyed students. One of the main ones was the fact that their right to withdraw was taken away from them. Jane Elliot's experiment explains the reasons for discrimination to a small extent. The three outcomes are: (1) virtually all of the subjects reported that the experience was When Elliott walked into the teachers' lounge the next Monday, several teachers got up and walked out. All the work should be used in accordance with the appropriate policies and applicable laws. Copyright 20102023, The Conversation Media Group Ltd. Ethical & Pedagogical Issues 2. There are risks to those inoculations, too, but we determine that those risks are worth taking. Almost immediately, it was apparent that she had created segregation and prejudice given that the blue-eyed students began exhibiting signs of dominion and superiority. The children were not aware of the experiment, and therefore they could not give their permission of involvement. 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. The Blue Eyes Brown Eyes exercise is now known as the inspiration for diversity training in the workplace, making Jane Elliott one of the most influential educators in recent American history. 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. Additionally, the brown-eyed students got to sit in the front of the class, while the blue-eyed kids . 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. Why do researchers use correlational studies? She told the kids that blue-eyed children weren't as good as brown-eyed or green-eyed ones. You give them something nice and they just wreck it." And what she did caused an uproar. "She taught in this school for 18 years." The same experiment was also used a couple of years later with adults. Many critics that the children were too young to understand the exercise. Things even got violent at recess. Sign up for Politics Weekly.]. This procedure is sometimes so subtle that no one notices it happening. Blue eyes, brown eyes: What Jane Elliott's famous experiment says about race 50 years on. Two students even got into a physical altercation. Jane Elliott and Dr. On April 5 1968 the day after the death of Martin Luther King Jr Elliott decided to show her students how easy it was to be influenced by racism. This is the phrase that inspired one of the most well-known experiments in education. The smell of the crops and loam and topsoil and manure wafted though the open door. 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. On the first day of the experiment, Elliott told the children who had blue eyes that they were superior to the children with brown eyes; that they were better, nicer and smarter. 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. Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct. 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 . But not Elliott. On the first day of the two-day experiment, Elliott told the . Despite the adaptation of the experiment in psychological studies, Jane has been widely criticized for her unethical conduct and promotion of discrimination among children. 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. She repeated the abuse with subsequent classes, and finally turned it into a fully commercial enterprise. Elliott? The results showed a . She then made the blue-eyed students believe that they were better and smarter than their counterparts. 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. Why'd they shoot that King?" Did they know what it was like to be discriminated against? I interviewed Julie Pasicznyk, who had been working for US West, a giant telecommunications company in Minneapolis. One scholar asserts that it is "Orwellian" and teaches whites "self-contempt." Ms. Elliott, now 87, said she started teaching about racism on April 5, 1968 the day after the Rev. Alan Charles Kors, a professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania, says Elliott's diversity training is "Orwellian" and singled her out as "the Torquemada of thought reform." Some people feel we can't move on when you have her out there hawking her 30-year-old experiment. 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. Students in the inferior groups were more likely to get a worse score. 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. In the wake of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., Elliott developed a simple exercise that explored the nature of racism and prejudice.. Elliott's method for exploring racism in the context of an all-white classroom consisted of dividing her students into two groups on the basis of eye color, blue or brown (those with other eye colors were assigned to the group . ", The two hugged, and Whisenhunt had tears streaming down her cheeks. 5/21/2020 Topic: Module 2 Discussion: Nobodys standing here. Thats just the way blue-eyed kids were, Elliott told the students. In 1968, schoolteacher Jane Elliott decided to divide her classroom into students with blue eyes and students with brown eyes. 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. At first, she cooperated with me. This way, she successfully created two distinct groups in her classroom: The consequences of the minimal group became evident very quickly. "The browneyed people are the better people in this room," Elliott began. "You know, sweetheart, you haven't changed one bit. ", We backed out. Delivery in 6+ hours! "This here is Jane Elliott," I said. Answer (1 of 3): My guess is that is doesn't really represent racism but classism. 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 even brought on The Tonight Show to talk about her experiences. Subsequently the brown-eyed children stopped objecting, even when Miss Elliott and the blue-eyed kids chastised and bullied them. It's cruel to white children and will cause them great psychological damage. See Page 1. The Blue-Eyed/Brown-Eyed Experiment: Investigation. You should be happy! The experiment known as Blue Eyes Brown Eyes experiment is regarded as an eye-opening way for children to learn about racism and discrimination. Though Jane's actions were justifiable because she was not a psychologist, her experiment cannot be replicated in the present society. Blue-eyed students slumped in their chairs, as though . On the first day, the blue-eyed students were informed that they were genetically inferior to the brown-eyed students. In this article, we talk about leadership and female discrimination.. The basic idea was to separate the class into two halves - those with blue eyes and those with brown. 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 . "They are cleaner and they are smarter.". Grasping for a scientific explanation, she ended up claiming that melanin makes eyes darker, and makes . Regardless of age, gender, race, ethnicity or socioeconomic status, decision making in psychology should protect individual rights and welfare to eliminate potential biases. "We'll just be a couple of minutes. On the second day of the experiment, Elliott switched the childrens roles. The publication of compositions which the children had written about the experience in the local . Theyd have to use paper cups if they drank from the water fountain. "Let me look at you," Elliott said. It is a must . One key assumption is that the sample population represents an actual society. "Hey, Mrs. Elliott," Steven yelled as he slung his books on his desk. "It's the same thing over and over again," Cross says. If you white folks want to be treated the way blacks are in this society, stand. Right off the bat, she picked me out of the room and called me Barbie, Pasicznyk told me. Elliott asked her students to write about their experiences for the local newspaper. The Associated Press followed up, quoting Elliott as saying she was "dumbfounded" by the exercise's effectiveness. Not everyone appreciated Elliotts exercise. Website. 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. Then a picture was taken to remember. 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 . Stephen G. Bloom does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment. Blue-eyed students suggested that the teacher use a yardstick to discipline brown-eyed students that misbehaved. The people and cultures already present in a place often feel threatened by new immigrants. "You have to put the exercise in the context of the rest of the year. Order original essays online. Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images In the documentary, she said that she conducted the original blue-eyes, brown-eyes experiment to make a positive change. ISBN 9780520382268. Most Riceville residents seem to have an opinion of Elliott, whether or not they've met her. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. When the exercise ended, some of the kids hugged, some cried. PracticalPie.com is a participant in the Amazon Associates Program. Privacy Statement The kids in the bottom group became timider and kept to themselves. Elliott separated her all-white class of students into two groups: blue-eyed children and brown-eyed children. she asked the children, who were white. "How dare you try this cruel experiment out on white children," one said. Would you like to find out? As a journalism professor and author of a book on race that spans more than 50 years, Ive watched these developments with great concern. How can we teach kids to be more like him? Elliott and I were sitting at her dining room table. Introduction. 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. They are cleaner than blue-eyed people. Elliott said that blue-eyed people were less intelligent and less clean. Elliott is nothing if not stubborn. (She prefers the term "exercise.") 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 . 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. A columnist at a Denver newspaper called it "evil. 10 Psychological Experiments That Could Never Happen Today. ", Vision and tenacity may get results, but they don't always endear a person to her neighbors. Elliotts bullying rejoinder to any nonbeliever was to say that however much pain a white person felt after one or two days of made-up discrimination was nothing when compared to what Blacks endure daily. The brown-eyed children began to act aggressive and mean towards the blue-eyed children. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. The searing story is a cautionary tale that examines power and privilege in and out of the classroom. Barbie had to have a Ken, so Elliott picked from the audience a tall, handsome man and accused him of doing the same things with his female subordinates, Pasicznyk said. Withdrawn brown-eyed kids were suddenly outgoing, some beaming with the widest smiles she had ever seen on them. When the blue-eyed group saw that the brown-eyed group was going to be seated first, some became upset. She compromised the APA's Code of Conduct and Ethical Standard because she lied, after that she recanted the lies and kept as they were justified because of her greater purpose. What Lies Behind Your Urgent Need to Answer Work E Mails? (2022, Apr 06). For many, the experiment went horribly awry. The experiment, known as Blue Eyes Brown Eyes experiment, is regarded as an eye-opening way for children to learn about racism and discrimination.