One caller complained that white children would not be able to handle the exercise and would be seriously damaged by the exercise. 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. "You have to put the exercise in the context of the rest of the year. SYNOPSIS OF BLUE EYED. That's not true. There are risks to those inoculations, too, but we determine that those risks are worth taking. "No person of any age [was] going to leave my presence with those attitudes unchallenged," Elliott said. Subsequently the brown-eyed children stopped objecting, even when Miss Elliott and the blue-eyed kids chastised and bullied them. Everyone's tired of her. (2022, Apr 06). Thats how it started, and thats how it went all day long. "Well, what do you expect from him, Mrs. Elliott," a brown-eyed student said as a blue-eyed student got an arithmetic problem wrong. They are steeped in centuries of economic deprivation and cultural appropriation. They felt superior and had the support of the authority figure (the teacher). The brown-eyed children could take off their armbands and give them to the blue-eyed children, who were now taught that they were inferior to the brown-eyed children. Once indoors, the brown-eyed group was then treated to coffee and doughnuts, while the blue-eyed group could only stand around and wait. 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. She also made the brown-eyed students put construction paper armbands on the blue-eyed students. Its not surprising to anyone that some social groups discriminate against others due to ethnicity, religion, or culture. "It's happening every day in this country, right now," she said in an interview with Morning Edition. Racism is not genetical. "Do blue-eyed people remember what they've been taught?" This time, the participants werent a bunch of elementary school children they were young adults. Undeterred, Elliott tried to appeal to Pauls self-interest. If you white folks want to be treated the way blacks are in this society, stand. More than 50 years after her famous exercise, Elliott is still fighting. 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 believed that experience was the only way her students could understand how it felt like to be discriminated. On the "Tonight Show" Carson broke the ice by spoofing Elliott's rural roots. Given the ethical concerns, will you still rely on a quasi-experimental research design as a source of information in counselling psychology? 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. 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. 5/21/2020 Topic: Module 2 Discussion: Watch it online right now! She began this work in They didnt need to engage with a single Black person. Much like the Zimbardo's Stanford Prison experiment where students were divided by either being the jailer or the jailed. ", Elliott defends her work as a mother defends her child. She has since refused to answer any of my inquiries. She told the students that the brown-eyed children were inferior and repeated the experiment. 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. "There's a sense of renewal here that I've never seen anywhere else," Elliott says. Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct. The ethical concerns arising from the experiment are consent and deception. The results showed a . 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. PracticalPsychology. In fact, most of the initial response was negative. In this photograph from Sept. 13, 1965, Black children on their way to school in New York City pass by segregationists protesting integrated busing. The second day, Elliott reversed the groups. It didnt take long for the children to turn on each other. Amitai Etzioni, a sociologist at George WashingtonUniversity, says the exercise helps develop character and empathy. The study also violates the American Principles of Psychologist codes of conduct making its replication or further investigation unethical. 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 minimal group paradigm has shaped an entire methodology 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. ( 1985-03-26) " A Class Divided " is a 1985 episode of the PBS series Frontline. The blue-eyed children were told not to do their homework because, even if they answered all the questions, theyd probably forget to bring the assignment back to class. January 1, 2003. Jane Elliott's Blue Eyes and Brown Eyes experiment was a turning point in social psychology. If you have ever heard of the self-fulfilling prophecy, these results may not come as a surprise. 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. Elliott championed the experiment as an inoculation against racism., [The Conversations Politics + Society editors pick need-to-know stories. 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. Separate the class into two halves - those with blue eyes and those with brown. She has made statements about the increase in hate crimes and racism in recent years. Elliott and I were sitting at her dining room table. The secretary on duty looked up, startled, as if she had just seen a ghost. [White people] on the other hand, don't have to understand them. The first thing that Jane Elliott did was divide the children into groups: those with blue eyes and those with brown eyes. She told them that people with brown eyes were superior to those with blue eyes, for reasons she made up. Blue Eyes vs. Brown Eyes Experiment. Folks leave their cars unlocked, keys in the ignition. It was typical of Elliott's blunt styleno "Good morning," no small talk. The Blue Eyes Brown Eyes exercise continues to be relevant. The experiment, known as Blue Eyes Brown Eyes experiment, is regarded as an eye-opening way for children to learn about racism and discrimination. When my grandchildren are old enough, I'd give anything if you'd try the exercise out on them. I was stunned. She has spoken at more than 350 colleges and universities. She told them that people with brown eyes were better than people with blue eyes. "It's the same thing over and over again," Cross says. 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 . Scores of others did participate. Why Did Jane Elliott Choose Eye Color To Divide Her Students? Elliott shared the essays with her mother, who showed them to the editor of the weekly Riceville Recorder. One key assumption is that the sample population represents an actual society. They wouldnt be allowed second helpings for lunch. Even family members can turn against each other if some authority suddenly decides that those differences are a problem. In this 1998 photograph, former Iowa teacher Jane Elliott, center, speaks with two Augsburg University . Jane Elliott on The Tonight Show on May 31, 1968. ", When I met Elliott in 2003, she hadn't been back to Riceville in 12 years. In 2001, she was still trying to make a change. The documentary has become a popular teaching tool among teachers, business owners, and even employees at correctional facilities. ", 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. The results are mixed. ", 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. It occurs to me that for a teacher, the arrival of new students at the start of each school year has a lot in common with the return of crops each summer. Not only were they fewer in numbers, but the authority figure was against them. She could feel a chasm forming between the two groups of students. She has appeared on the "Oprah Winfrey Show" five times. 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. "I understand this is the first time you've flown?" Elliott asked her students to write about their experiences for the local newspaper. 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. Is it even possible today? In her article, Peggy McIntosh compares the "white privilege" to an invisible set of unearned rewards and . Is your time best spent reading someone elses essay? "I think these children walked in a colored child's moccasins for a day," she was quoted as saying. Open Document. 4 Pages. Kids on top would tease the children who were deemed as the inferior group. She left teaching in the mid-80s to speak publicly about the experience and the impact of prejudice and racism. "She was an excellent school teacher, but she has a way about her," says 90-year-old Riceville native Patricia Bodenham, who has known Elliott since Jane was a baby. The latter felt discriminated against by the other brown-eyed children. The first day of the experiment she convinced the children that blue-eyed people were smarter, better and would have more priorities. It's the Jane Elliott machine. The episode features with new footage of the students, who are now adults. 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. Elliott instructed the blue-eyed kids not to play on the jungle gym or swings. The blue eyes/brown eyes experiment, which could last one to three days, was at a glance similar to other human-potential-movement workshops of the era, including Werner Erhard's est training . Now 45, she had been in Elliott's third grade class in 1969. To back up my statement Bloom (2005) says Jane Elliott's blue-eyes brown-eyes exercise encouraged children to mistrust authority figures. Many critics that the children were too young to understand the exercise. One of the ways Hitler decided who went into the gas chamber was eye color, Elliott said in a later speech. Thus, the dominant group, supported by the authorities, will always have the upper hand. . She had never met me, and she accused me in front of everyone of using my sexuality to get ahead.. Her bold experiment to teach Iowa third graders about racial prejudice divided townspeople and thrust her onto the national stage. people are better than blue-eyed people. Jane divided the class into 9 brown eyes and 9 blue eyes. Thousands of educators across the United States folded the experiment into their curriculums. "They can't forget me," she said, "and because of who they are, they can't forgive me. Jane would get invited to go to Timbuktu to give a speech. 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. Elliott went after Ken and Barbie all day long, drilling, accusing, ridiculing them, to make the point that whites make baseless judgments about Blacks all the time, Pasicznyk said. She told her students that she had made a mistake the previous day and that brown-eyed students . One even wrote a lipstick message with racial slurs. The May 25 killing of George Floyd set off weeks of nationwide protests over the police abuse and racism against black people, plunging the U.S. into a reckoning of racial inequality. 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. You have the right color eyes!. It is quite powerful to watch. Would you like to find out? Charity is humiliating because its exercised vertically and from above; solidarity is horizontal and implies mutual respect.. Brian, the Elliotts' oldest son, got beaten up at school, and Jane called the ringleader's, mother. 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. Why was the Blue Eyes and Brown Eyes Experiment considered unethical in psychology? 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. ", Then, the inevitable: "Hey, Mrs. Elliott, how come you're the teacher if you've got blue eyes?" "He's a bluey! Essay Example, Essay Example on Racism Towards Black People, Essay Sample about Developing a Campaign for School Intimidation, Essay Example on Therapist-Client Relationship Boundaries, Islamic Perspective on Euthanasia, Free Essay Sample. "I know who she is. The fact that children are easy to manipulate into acting in a particular manner explains Jane's choice of sample. ", Steve Harnack, 62, served as the elementary school principal beginning in 1977. 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. All rights reserved. There is a way to avoid editing or writing from scratch! The arbitrary division among the students intensified over the course of the experiment, so much so that it actually ended in physical violence. A smart blue-eyed girl who had never had problems with multiplication tables started making mistakes. Outside, rows of corn stretched to the horizon. She asked them if they would like to experience what it felt like to be in a person of colors shoes. At this point you may wish to tell the pupils that you are conducting an "experiment" to look at what prejudice is. Then tell them that . Unfortunately, you cant copy samples. Sign up for Politics Weekly.]. (She prefers the term "exercise.") Your Privacy Rights She chatted about the experiment, and before she knew it was whisked off the stage. A second look at the blue-eyes, brown-eyes experiment that taught third-graders about racism. 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. Three sections were selected to be administered the simulation . APA principles acknowledge that individuals rights to privacy, self-determination, and confidentiality is paramount to all psychological activities. She wanted them to understand what discrimination felt like. The Blue Eyes Brown Eyes exercise received national attention shortly after it ended. Elliott rattled off the rules for the day, saying blue-eyed kids had to use paper cups if they drank from the water fountain. Issues such as the right to know, the right to privacy, and informed consent. Initial Reaction to the Blue Eyes Brown Eyes Exercise. The blue eyes and brown eyes experiment According to supporters of Elliott's approach, the goal is to reach people's sense of empathy and morality. The next day when the tables were turned, "I felt like quitting school. 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. I'm tired of hearing about her and her experiment and how everyone here is a racist. 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. Malinda Whisenhunt? 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. We walked into the principal's office at RicevilleElementary School, Elliott's old haunt. 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. There were more brown-eyed students in the room. March 26, 1985. When some of the . "The racists carry on, so I carry on." The lives and legacies of Dr. Jane Elliott and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. are inextricably linked. We use them to divide and destroy people., On Understanding The Different Ways We Treat Other Races, Philip Zimbardo (Biography + Experiments). Why do researchers use correlational studies? Privacy Statement The experiment is to help the children to understand about prejudice and discrimination. ", Absolutely not. See Page 1. "Because we might catch something," a brown-eyed boy said. The exercise is "an inoculation against racism," she says. The experiment, known as Blue Eyes Brown Eyes experiment, is regarded as an eye-opening way for children to learn about racism and discrimination. "This here is Jane Elliott," I said. Some people feel we can't move on when you have her out there hawking her 30-year-old experiment. In the 60s, the United States was in the midst of a social race crisis. ", Elliott says the role of a teacher is to enhance students' moral development. 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." 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 Answer (1 of 3): My guess is that is doesn't really represent racism but classism. SpeedyPaper.com 2023 All rights reserved. Elliott's friends and family say she's tenacious, and has always had a reformer's zeal. ", A former teacher, Ruth Setka, 79, said she was perhaps the only teacher who would still talk to Elliott. Blue-eyed people would get 5 extra minutes on the playground and blue-eyed people could not talk to brown-eyed people. She also assumed that none of the children had interacted with black people and that the only place they could have seen them is on television. those with brown eyes (or hazel eyes). 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. You give them something nice and they just wreck it." One student answers, since the day I was born. Throughout the entire experiment, Elliott leads frank conversations about race and discrimination. ", 2023 Smithsonian Magazine Her class, When Elliott first conducted the exercise in 1968, brown-eyed students were given special privileges. In the documentary, she said that she conducted the original blue-eyes, brown-eyes experiment to make a positive change. In the case of any doubt, it's best to consult a trusted specialist. 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. Withdrawn brown-eyed kids were suddenly outgoing, some beaming with the widest smiles she had ever seen on them. Sadly, these conversations are still relevant today. The brown-eyed children felt suddenly that they were discriminated, while the blue eyed started seeing them as inferior. 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. Some residents were furious. With this experiment she wanted to let the blue-eyed people (white people) feel how it is to be in low power position. In 1968 after Martin Luther King was assassinated the United States was in turmoil. Jane Elliott's Blue-Eyed versus Brown-Eyed Students experiment was conducted to determine whether racism was a learned characteristic. Lasting Impact of Blue Eyes Brown Eyes Experiment, Words are the most powerful weapon devised by humankind. In Jane Elliott's experiment she made the third graders believe that the blue eyed people were better,than the brown eyed people. . The test violated the principle of respect for people's rights and dignity. 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. Little children don't like uproar in the classroom. The mainstream media were complicit in advancing such a simplistic narrative. "Maybe the way to sell the exercise would have been to invite the parents in, to talk about what she'd be doing. 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. Blue Eyed vs Brown Eyed Study Conducted by Jane Elliott Presentation by Bree Elliott Ethics Background The Results In 1968, when Dr. Martin Luther King Junior was assassinated, Jane Elliott was the teacher of a third grade class in the town of Riceville, Iowa.
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