Its not true and its not fair no matter what you say! he responded. Undeterred, Elliott tried to appeal to Pauls self-interest. How do the results of the experiment contribute to Jane Elliotts lesson to her students? Two months after trying it out, Elliott appeared on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson, followed by an appearance in an award-winning network TV documentary, and a headline-making White House conference on education. Brown eyes + blue eyes = 50% chance of blue eyes, but only if the brown-eyed parent carries a blue-eyed gene. Courtesy of AP Photo, by STEPHEN G. BLOOM | Even family members can turn against each other if some authority suddenly decides that those differences are a problem. By continuing to use our website, you agree to our privacy and cookie policy. What did the Milgram experiment show about the influence authority can have on the average person? The class of third graders are told that blue-eyed people are smarter and better than brown-eyed people. Nevertheless, Elliott became as famous as a teacher could become in America. Answer (1 of 3): My guess is that is doesn't really represent racism but classism. What is the lesson Jane Elliott wanted her students to learn? In her Brown Eyes vs. Blue Eyes experiment, Elliot put her students through an exercise which forced them to open their eyes to the pains of the victims of discrimination and to be more sympathetic and aware of their plights. They went by names such as team-building, large group awareness training (LGAT), consciousness raising, management by objective, and transformative leadership training. Soon, multitudes of teachers around the world, looking for a magic bullet to erase racism, adopted the experiment and imported it into their own classrooms. She also made the brown-eyed students put construction paper armbands on the blue-eyed students. She was a standing-room-only speaker at hundreds of colleges and universities. How can put those little children through that exercise for a day? And they seem unable to relate the sympathy that theyre feeling for these little white children for a day to what happens to children of color in this society for a lifetime or to the fact that they are doing this to children based on skin color every day. But the blue eyes/brown eyes experiment still retains a tentative foothold in some schools and work settings today. answer choices. 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. In 2001, Jane Elliott recordedThe Angry Eye,in which she revised and updated her experiment. What was unethical about the blue eyes brown eyes experiment? Its not surprising to anyone that some social groups discriminate against others due to ethnicity, religion, or culture. Jane says she first started this exercise in her third grade class back in 1968,. Brown eyed students who often struggled in school began doing better work, while blue eyed students who often did well in school began making mistakes in their schoolwork. What happened in A Class Divided? Elliott created the blue-eyes/brown-eyes classroom exercise in 1968 to teach students about racism. All the while, Blue Eyes, Brown Eyes reveals the struggles that tormented a determined and righteous woman, today referred to as the Mother of Diversity Training, who was driven against all odds to succeed. Do you feel that it was acceptable to scare the participants? Copyright Steadyprintshop.com 2023 No paywall. She asks them if they have ever faced treatment like the type that blue-eyed people would experience in the following two and a half hours. Why is sample size important in psychological research? 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. For two parents with brown eyes to have a blue-eyed child, both parents must genetically be Bb. She also made the brown-eyed students put construction paper armbands on the blue-eyed students. And the exercise continued in a similar fashion to how it was executed the day before. Explain your reasoning. Why are case studies used in qualitative research? The following are some of her most insightful quotes on these issues. Professor Jane Elliott performed a group experiment, the current problems related to discrimination. This caused these children to become attached emotionally with her. On average, what eye color is deemed to be most attractive in humans? When I interviewed Riceville residents, mentioning Elliotts name generated outbursts of anger and anguish. Did Milgram conduct his shock experiment in an ethical fashion? Jane Elliot was a third-grade teacher in Riceville, Iowa when Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in 1968. Without telling the children the experiments purpose, Elliott demonstrated how easy it was to create abhorrent racist behavior based on students eye color, not skin color. Therefore, two brown-eyed partners can birth a blue-eyed baby. 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. 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. What was the aim of Milgram's study? What is the blue eyes brown eyes experiment? Watch it online right now! She selectively interprets behavior to confirm the stereotypes she had assigned by asking questions. The mainstream media were complicit in advancing such a simplistic narrative. Iowa City, IA 52242-1409 She wanted to show her pupils what discrimination feels like, and what it can do to people. From the moment the experiment begins, Jane Elliott uses a mean tone to speak to the participants. The searing story is a cautionary tale that examines power and privilege in and out of the classroom. b. In trying to teach the insidious impact of racism, did the experiment itself damage students? If brown-eyed children made a mistake, Elliott would call out the mistake and attribute it to the students brown eyes. He teaches magazine reporting and writing, and media ethics in a digital age. Dick DeMarsico/New York World-Telegram & the Sun Newspaper Photograph Collection/PhotoQuest/Getty Images, Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images. The experience of being experimented upon, along with the fame (and money) her experiment earned for her, left hard feelings. 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. In this they saw how colors and discrimination . Download. When you study Jane Elliotts famous lesson on discrimination What is one conclusion you are most likely to make? She told them that people with brown eyes were better than people with blue eyes. She tried it on adults, not just in the United States and Canada, but in Europe, the Middle East, and Australia. She told them that people with brown eyes were superior to those with blue eyes, for reasons she made up. Brown eyes + blue eyes = 50% chance of blue eyes, but only if the brown-eyed parent carries a blue-eyed gene. Articles and opinions on happiness, fear and other aspects of human psychology. 2012 2023 . How is the blue eyes brown eyes exercise related to the Sioux prayer? Very famous studies have used unethical methods to allow the experiment to run smoothly, as for example the "Stanford Prison Study". 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. The Blue Eyes Brown Eyes exercise received national attention shortly after it ended. They needed not acknowledge their privilege or reflect on it. Are brown-eyed people better than blue-eyed people? According to some studies, there is a slight difference in vision capabilities between people with light and dark colored eyes. Children with brown eyes were forced to wear armbands that made it easy for people to see that they had brown eyes. 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. 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. Elliott went after Ken and Barbie, drilling, accusing, ridiculing them to make the point that white people make baseless judgments about Black people all the time. The idea was simple but profound. It remains an important reminder of the need to challenge and combat these harmful forces in our society. Weve been here before, with unsettling and disturbing results. Why is it difficult to conduct experimental research in education? When this happens, there is a 1 in 4 chance that these parents will have a bb child with blue eyes. That says very plainly that you know whats happening, you know you dont want it for you. 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. 319.335.2633 120 Schaeffer Hall The children said yes, and the exercise began. How did Elliotts discrimination create no win situations for those placed in the inferior group? You didnt understand the directions. Not everyone appreciated Elliotts exercise. Pasicznyk joined 75 other employees for a training session in the companys suburban Denver headquarters in the late 1980s. In 2004, Elliott invited me to write a biography of her. The experiment was conducted to determine how children learned bias and prejudice. Learn about Jane Elliott's blue eyes vs brown eyes experiment. What was the purpose of a class divided experiment? This was the smaller group. This way, she successfully created two distinct groups in her classroom: The consequences of the minimal group became evident very quickly. Can you integrate if function is not continuous. How Should Societies Remember Their Sins. I interviewed Julie Pasicznyk, who had been working for US West, a giant telecommunications company in Minneapolis. Is there a radio station that plays calm music? Summarize Milgram's shock experiment in your own words. A grammar school teacher in a recently integrated classroom in 1969. You may also want to experiment with a shimmer or glitter eyeshadow - this can help to make hazel eyes sparkle and take them to the next level. The contents of Exploring Your Mind are for informational and educational purposes only. 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 . Explain. All rights reserved. . We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. B) What are some factors that could be changed to reduce it? However, in this classroom, having blue-eyes had become a condition of inferiority. 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. Jane Elliott's Blue Eyes and Brown Eyes experiment was a turning point in social psychology. What Was the Purpose of the Blue Eyes Brown Eyes Experiment? How was the Stanford Prison Experiment unethical? After becoming aware of their differences, students became more likely to self-segregate into their own groups. Why was the Blue Eyes and Brown Eyes Experiment considered unethical in psychology? In the 60s, the United States was in the midst of a social race crisis. Aim. She split the class in two categories, according to eye color, and told the children that one group was superior to the others. Why is it important to evaluate the reliability and validity of a psychological test? She pointed out flaws in a student and associated it with their eye colors. American scientists who conducted some tests concluded that brown-eyed people performed better at reaction time, but those with lighter or blue eyes appeared to be better strategic thinkers, the Daily Mail reported. Why was the Robbers Cave experiment unethical? Eye Color They wouldnt be allowed second helpings for lunch. Help, Blue Eyes, Brown Eyes: A Cautionary Tale of Race and Brutality, School of Journalism & Mass Communication, Distinguished Teaching in Journalism Award. Read More, In case of sale of your personal information, you may opt out by using the link Do Not Sell My Personal Information. Why is cheating in an exam or essay wrong for Kant. 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 . Things even got violent at recess. The first thing that Jane Elliott did was divide the children into groups: those with blue eyes and those with brown eyes. If this arbitrary division that Elliott enforced for a few hours created so many problems in this classroom, whats happening on a larger scale? A) Explain why or why not. For many, the experiment went horribly awry. When you study Jane Elliotts famous lesson on discrimination, what is one conclusion you are MOST likely to make? In 1971, when Elliott was pitting blue-eyed students against their brown-eyed counterparts, Zimbardo was conducting his own contentious research, known as the Stanford Prison Experiment, to show how easy it was to make thugs out of college students once they were given an overdose of power. 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