The assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968 was also an event that spurred educators to action, motivating one teacher to try out a bold experiment touted to reduce racism. Hire a professional with VAST experience! The blue-eyed participants faced discrimination for two and a half hours. What Was The Blue Eyes Brown Eyes Experiment? Some people feel we can't move on when you have her out there hawking her 30-year-old experiment. She says its because racism, sexism, homophobia, ageism, and ethnocentrism are mean and nasty. The selection was based on the color of the eye for each group. In Jane Elliott's experiment she made the third graders believe that the blue eyed people were better,than the brown eyed people. Privacy Statement Children with brown eyes were forced to wear armbands that made it easy for people to see that they had brown eyes. They don't replace the diagnosis, advice, or treatment of a professional. If you white folks want to be treated the way blacks are in this society, stand. That's what it feels like when you're discriminated against.". Why do researchers use correlational studies? one girl asked. These initial criticisms didnt stop Elliott. From the moment the experiment begins, Jane Elliott uses a mean tone to speak to the participants. I often think about Paul Bodensteiner. As the morning wore on, brown-eyed kids berated their blue-eyed classmates. The test violated the principle of respect for people's rights and dignity. In explaining the experiment rules to the brown-eyed contestants, she addresses the people of color in the room. ", Others have praised Elliott's exercise. . I want to know why youre so willing to accept it or to allow it to happen for others., The first reaction I get from teachers, who see this film or from hearing, hear me discuss what I do say to me How can you do that to these little children? The basic idea was to separate the class into two halves, students with blue eyes and those with brown. 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. Elliotts coworkers avoided her after her appearance on The Tonight Show. 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. "It's happening every day in this country, right now," she said in an interview with Morning Edition. Website. The idea of white privilege is closely tied to Elliotts initial question to her students. Malinda Whisenhunt? Elliott created the blue-eyes/brown-eyes classroom exercise in 1968 to teach students about racism. those with brown eyes (or hazel eyes). Before proceeding with the test, she began with random questions to fully understand the children's perception of Negroes. They felt superior and had the support of the authority figure (the teacher). Cookie Policy "Your son got what he deserved," the woman said. ", 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. She told them that people with brown eyes were better than people with blue 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. Let's just move on. Elliott and I were sitting at her dining room table. To begin with, Jane Elliot's experiment involved deception in which the children were made in believing that change in eye color influence intelligence. ", That spring morning 37 years ago, the blue-eyed children were set apart from the children with brown or green eyes. "That you, Ms. It is sometimes cited as a landmark of social science. Brown-eyed people, she told the students, are smarter, more civilized and better than blue-eyed people. That spring morning 37 years ago, the blue-eyed children were set apart from the children with brown or green eyes. Decent Essays. 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 . She was 10 before the farmhouse had running water and electricity. We have to let people find out how it feels to be on the receiving end of that which we dish out so readily.". "You can see the look on their faces. Youve probably heard different versions of it. APA principles acknowledge that individuals rights to privacy, self-determination, and confidentiality is paramount to all psychological activities. ", We backed out. The Blue Eyes & Brown Eyes Exercise. The students who had blue eyes were told that they were better and smarter than their inferior brown-eyed peers. "It's Riceville 30 years ago. "He's a bluey! "Do blue-eyed people remember what they've been taught?" The tallest structure in Riceville is the water tower. Questioning authority The mainstream media were complicit in advancing such a simplistic narrative. Sign up for Politics Weekly.]. Jane Elliott was a third grade teacher in Riceville, Iowa when she developed the Blue Eyed/ Brown Eyed exercise to teach the effects of racism. When Elliott conducted the exercise the next year, she added something extra to collect data. 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. Ethics + Religion; Health; Politics + Society; . When you read about this experiment, its hard not to question labels. Did they know what it was like to be discriminated against? Subsequently the brown-eyed children stopped objecting, even when Miss Elliott and the blue-eyed kids chastised and bullied them. 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. ", 2023 Smithsonian Magazine When Elliott first conducted the exercise in 1968, brown-eyed students were given special privileges. "We give our children shots to inoculate them against polio and smallpox, to protect them against the realities in the future. 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. 4. 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. Not everyone appreciated Elliotts exercise. Elliott turned into Americas mother of diversity training. She has spoken at more than 350 colleges and universities. She chatted about the experiment, and before she knew it was whisked off the stage. (2013). It also documents small-town White America's reflex reaction to the . She wanted to show her students that an arbitrarily established difference could separate them and pit them against each other. 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. One of the ways Hitler decided who went into the gas chamber was eye color, Elliott said in a later speech. You didnt understand the directions. Need an original essay on Essay Sample: Ethical Concerns in Jane Elliot's Experiment? Sorry, but it's not possible to copy the text due to security reasons. Their response is to create dichotomies of inferiority and superiority. On Thursday, April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, TN. Grasping for a scientific explanation, she ended up claiming that melanin makes eyes darker, and makes . 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. Its not true and its not fair no matter what you say! he responded. Elliott asked her students to write about their experiences for the local newspaper. 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. 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. Consequently, the brown-eyed children started using blue-eyes as an insult. Pasicznyk joined 75 other employees for a training session in the companys suburban Denver headquarters in the late 1980s. Blue-eyed people. You give them something nice and they just wreck it." Delivery in 6+ hours! "No person of any age [was] going to leave my presence with those attitudes unchallenged," Elliott said. 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. ", A former teacher, Ruth Setka, 79, said she was perhaps the only teacher who would still talk to Elliott. We walked into the principal's office at RicevilleElementary School, Elliott's old haunt. Role Theory: Expectations, Identities, and Behaviors. Normally, blue-eyes isnt an insult. She told the students that the brown-eyed children were inferior and repeated the experiment. Jane Elliot and the Blue-Eyed Children Experiment. Issues such as the right to know, the right to privacy, and informed consent. "Blue-eyed people sit around and do nothing. 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. 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. 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. In this article, we'll explain what happened during the experiment and discuss its consequences. Nevertheless, Elliott became as famous as a teacher could become in America. I was stunned. She then made the blue-eyed students believe that they were better and smarter than their counterparts. Sadly, these conversations are still relevant today. That got the other teachers angry. 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. Mental Sandboxes and Their Usefulness in Today's World, The Law of Reversed Effort: When Taking Action Isn't the Best Option. I felt mad. Everyone's tired of her. The test also included violation of consent in which participation of the children was made involuntarily. Jane Elliott on The Tonight Show on May 31, 1968. Stripping away the veneer of the experiment, what was left had nothing to do with race. "I think these children walked in a colored child's moccasins for a day," she was quoted as saying. She continued to conduct the exercise with her third graders. The first day of the experiment she convinced the children that blue-eyed people were smarter, better and would have more priorities. Now, almost four decades later, Elliott's experiment still mattersto the grown children with whom she experimented, to the people of Riceville, population 840, who all but ran her out of town, and to thousands of people around the world who have also participated in an exercise based on the experiment. You can contribute to that positive change by watching the documentary. 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. 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. On Friday, April 5, 1968, in Riceville, IA, a third-grade student walked . The Hangout Bar & Grill, the Riceville Pharmacy and ATouch of Dutch, a restaurant owned by Mennonites, line Main Street. 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. Even family members can turn against each other if some authority suddenly decides that those differences are a problem. "Not one of them reprimanded her for that or even corrected her. One caller complained that white children would not be able to handle the exercise and would be seriously damaged by the exercise. January 1, 2003. She asked the other teachers what they were doing to bring news of the King assassination into their classrooms. 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. Would you like to get this essay by email? She had never met me, and she accused me in front of everyone of using my sexuality to get ahead.. The next day, Elliott reversed the roles. Yes, the children felt angry, hurt, betrayed. Her class, Yet what Elliott did continues to stir controversy. Mary and Zeke have three children, all of whom have blue eyes. Order from one of our vetted writers instead. Society made them believe they were better than other people for arbitrary reasons such as skin color or gender. 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. She pointed out flaws in a student and associated it with . 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. (She prefers the term "exercise.") 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 . She began this work in Cookie Settings, Kids Start Forgetting Early Childhood Around Age 7, Archaeologists Discover Wooden Spikes Described by Julius Caesar, Artificial Sweetener Tied to Risk of Heart Attack and Stroke, Study Finds, Rare Jurassic-Era Insect Discovered at Arkansas Walmart. Blue-eyed people would get 5 extra minutes on the playground and blue-eyed people could not talk to brown-eyed people. This paradigm helps understand the current problems related to discrimination. 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. 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. Scores of others did participate. 5/21/2020 Topic: Module 2 Discussion: Most Riceville residents seem to have an opinion of Elliott, whether or not they've met her. The secretary said the south side of the building was closed, something about waxing the hallways. When she went downtown to do errands, she heard whispers. What Was the Purpose of the Blue Eyes Brown Eyes Experiment? 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. 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. 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 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. She wanted them to understand what discrimination felt like. I felt like quitting school. hide caption. Regardless of age, gender, race, ethnicity or socioeconomic status, decision making in psychology should protect individual rights and welfare to eliminate potential biases.
