March 26, 1985. Fourteen years later, the students featured in The Eye of the Storm reunited and discussed their experiences with Elliott. "They can't forget me," she said, "and because of who they are, they can't forgive me. On the "Tonight Show" Carson broke the ice by spoofing Elliott's rural roots. Jane Elliott's brown eye/blue eye experiment starts at 03:10 of A Class Divided. The assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968 prompted educator Jane Elliott to create the now-famous "blue eyes/brown eyes exercise.". When some of the . Days after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. If brown-eyed children made a mistake, Elliott would call out the mistake and attribute it to the students brown eyes. Kors writes that Elliott's exercise taught "blood-guilt and self-contempt to whites," adding that "in her view, nothing has changed in America since the collapse of Reconstruction." Questioning authority The mainstream media were complicit in advancing such a simplistic narrative. Danko, M. (2013). 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 . The blue-eyed students, when told they were superior and offered privileges such as extra recess time, changed their behavior dramatically and their attitudes toward the children with brown eyes. To get her points across, Elliott hurled insults at workshop participants, particularly those who were white and had blue eyes. Elliott flew to the NBC studio in New York City. Blue-eyed students slumped in their chairs, as though . . She said she watched and was horrified at what she saw. Undeterred, Elliott tried to appeal to Pauls self-interest. If you have ever heard of the self-fulfilling prophecy, these results may not come as a surprise. 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. When Elliott first conducted the exercise in 1968, brown-eyed students were given special privileges. The day after Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed, Jane Elliott, a teacher in a small, all-white Iowa town, divided her third-grade class into blue-eyed and brown-eyed groups and gave them a daring . Even family members can turn against each other if some authority suddenly decides that those differences are a problem. Youve probably heard different versions of it. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. "No person of any age [was] going to leave my presence with those attitudes unchallenged," Elliott said. 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. It also documents small-town White America's reflex reaction to the . Issues such as the right to know, the right to privacy, and informed consent. 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 . It's the Jane Elliott machine. Unfortunately, you cant copy samples. The fact that children are easy to manipulate into acting in a particular manner explains Jane's choice of sample. 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? 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. Elliott started to see her own white privilege, even her own ignorance. 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. According to the Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct, 2010 the experiment also violates the principle of Integrity. Elliott asked. Subsequently the brown-eyed children stopped objecting, even when Miss Elliott and the blue-eyed kids chastised and bullied them. Elliott instructed the blue-eyed kids not to play on the jungle gym or swings. Hire a professional with VAST experience! Many critics that the children were too young to understand the exercise. 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. At her lunch break that day in the teacher's lounge, she told her colleagues about the exercise. Throughout the day, Elliott continued to give the children with blue eyes special treatment. They also harassed them constantly. 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. One group consisted pupils with brown eye while the other group consisted of those with blue eyes. 10," Elliott said. I got to have five minutes extra of recess." Brown-eyed people. That spring morning 37 years ago, the blue-eyed children were set apart from the children with brown or green eyes. A difference as simple as eye color, defined and established by the authority figure, created a rift between the students. The selection was based on the color of the eye for each group. In the most uncomfortable moments, Elliott reminds the students of violent acts caused by racism or homophobia. Blue Eyes vs. Brown Eyes Experiment. Thats what it feels like when youre discriminated against., -A child participant in the Blue Eyes-Brown Eyes experiment-. Elliott rattled off the rules for the day, saying blue-eyed kids had to use paper cups if they drank from the water fountain. "Why?" The hate and discrimination that we see in adults have their origin in their upbringing. Is it even possible today? Charity is humiliating because its exercised vertically and from above; solidarity is horizontal and implies mutual respect.. "Probably because they have been taught how they're treated in this country that they have to understand us. She appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show five times. The more melanin, the darker the person's eyesand the smarter the person. 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 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. 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. Despite the adaptation of the experiment in psychological studies, Jane has been widely criticized for her unethical conduct and promotion of discrimination among children. Kellen Castineiras PSY Dr. Gail C. Flanagan February 6, 2022. . The students were surprised, but they didnt argue. The results are mixed. She began this work in Sign up for Politics Weekly.]. Children often fight, argue, and sometimes hit each other, but this time they were motivated by eye color. ", We stopped on Woodlawn Avenue, and a woman in her mid-40s approached us on the sidewalk. The subjects were 164 students enrolled in eight sections of an introductory elementary education course at a state university. Outside, rows of corn stretched to the horizon. "She taught in this school for 18 years." In 2001, she was still trying to make a change. What Was The Blue Eyes Brown Eyes Experiment? The brown-eyed students also exercised a certain level of power over the blue-eyed students when they put the armbands on them. 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. The children said yes, and the exercise began. 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. Grey eyes are also a rare eye color. There were more brown-eyed students in the room. In a grassy front yard down the block is a hand-lettered sign: "Glads for Sale, 3 for $1." 1. Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER! "Mention two wordsJane Elliottand you get a flood of emotions from people," says Jim Cross, the Riceville Recorder's editor these days. The Blue Eye/Brown Eye was an experiment performed by Jane Elliot in 1968 on the day after Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. "We just want to peek in," I volunteered. However, both Mary and Zeke have brown eyes. 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. 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. Elliott pulled out green construction paper armbands and asked each of the blue . Advertising Notice ", Walt Gabelmann, 83, was Riceville's mayor for 18 years beginning in 1966. 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. 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. The answer, in a word, was nothing. She had never met me, and she accused me in front of everyone of using my sexuality to get ahead.. "We want to see Room No. Its not surprising to anyone that some social groups discriminate against others due to ethnicity, religion, or culture. Even though some of the children said yes, Elliott pushed back. Watch it online right now! In 1968 after Martin Luther King was assassinated the United States was in turmoil. "It would be hard to know, wouldn't it, unless we actually experienced discrimination ourselves. 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. "You have to put the exercise in the context of the rest of the year. 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. Additionally, the brown-eyed students got to sit in the front of the class, while the blue-eyed kids . Copyright 20102023, The Conversation Media Group Ltd. The day after Kings murder, Jane Elliott, a white third-grade teacher in rural Riceville, Iowa, sought to make her students feel the brutality of racism. Theyd have to use paper cups if they drank from the water fountain. She has . Jane Elliott's Blue Eyes and Brown Eyes experiment was a turning point in social psychology. 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. 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. For many, the experiment went horribly awry. However, in this classroom, having blue-eyes had become a condition of inferiority. She decided to continue the exercise with her students after lunch. Folks leave their cars unlocked, keys in the ignition. You should be happy! Then a picture was taken to remember. Jane Elliot's 'The Blue Eyes and Brown Eyes Experiment' was unethical in that she created a segregated environment in a third grade classroom. The results were the same. The fourth of five children, Elliott was born on her family's farm in Riceville in 1933, and was delivered by her Irish-American father himself. Mental Floss, 4. Elliott reminded them that the reason for the lesson was the King assassination, and she asked them to write down what they had learned. A second look at the blue-eyes, brown-eyes experiment that taught third-graders about racism. Three sections were selected to be administered the simulation . But Paul, one of eight siblings and the son of a dairy farmer, didnt buy Elliotts mollification. The Blue Eyes Brown Eyes exercise received national attention shortly after it ended. At recess, three brown-eyed girls ganged up on her. "They are cleaner and they are smarter.". Why was the Blue Eyes and Brown Eyes Experiment considered unethical in psychology? I interviewed Julie Pasicznyk, who had been working for US West, a giant telecommunications company in Minneapolis. Multi-Problem Adolescents: An Increasing Problem, Professor Jane Elliott performed a group experiment, the current problems related to discrimination. However, the study shows some bias in the sample size and race of participants. The Blue Eyes & Brown Eyes Exercise. This was intentional. Proceeding with the experiment, Elliot divided the children into two groups each with nine pupils. Is your time best spent reading someone elses essay? She says its because racism, sexism, homophobia, ageism, and ethnocentrism are mean and nasty. Later, it would occur to Elliott that the blueys were much less nasty than the brown-eyed kids had been, perhaps because the blue-eyed kids had felt the sting of being ostracized and didn't want to inflict it on their former tormentors. Blue-eyed children got five extra minutes of recess. The second day, Elliott reversed the groups. Although actions from the experiment show lack of respect towards subjects it has widely been recognized in the study of human behavior in social and cultural context. Your Privacy Rights 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. ", Vision and tenacity may get results, but they don't always endear a person to her neighbors. Nobodys standing here. I have brown eyes. The episode features with new footage of the students, who are now adults. You have the right color eyes!. "She got carried away by this possession she developed over human beings. They wouldnt be allowed second helpings for lunch. See Page 1. "It's Riceville 30 years ago. "We are repeating the blue-eyed/brown-eyed exercise on a daily basis.". One caller complained that white children would not be able to handle . There is a way to avoid editing or writing from scratch! 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.". 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. Elliott? 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. "If this ugly change, if this negative change can happen this quickly, why can't positive change happen that quickly? I felt like quitting school. She learned that the responses from the children were negative and more generalized about what they thought about black people. Jane Elliott's experiment. The corn grows so fast in northern Iowafrom seedling to seven-foot-high stalk in 12 weeksthat it crackles. Though Jane's actions were justifiable because she was not a psychologist, her experiment cannot be replicated in the present society. 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. The idea was simple but profound. On April 4 1968, King was killed by the single . Then tell them that . With this experiment she wanted to let the blue-eyed people (white people) feel how it is to be in low power position. She asked the other teachers what they were doing to bring news of the King assassination into their classrooms. Much like the Zimbardo's Stanford Prison experiment where students were divided by either being the jailer or the jailed. Let's just move on. You didnt understand the directions. Some guidelines for avoiding or reducing this effect are: In conclusion, Jane Elliotts experiment demonstrates the fragility of coexistence and cooperation. 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. "How dare you try this cruel experiment out on white children," one said. I'm tired of hearing about her and her experiment and how everyone here is a racist. She told them that people with brown eyes were better than people with blue eyes. a brown-eyed boy asked. 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. 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. 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. Was The Blue Eyes Brown Eyes Experiment Ethical? The mainstream media were complicit in advancing such a simplistic narrative. But in reality, I found in researching for my book Blue Eyes, Brown Eyes that the experiment was a sadistic exhibition of power and authority levers controlled by Elliott. In the 60s, the United States was in the midst of a social race crisis. ", A chorus of "Yeahs" went up, and so began one of the most astonishing exercises ever conducted in an American classroom. After the exercise white college students in . The Blue Eyes Brown Eyes exercise continues to be relevant. Yes, the children felt angry, hurt, betrayed. She told them that people with brown eyes were superior to those with blue eyes, for reasons she made up. One student answers, since the day I was born. Throughout the entire experiment, Elliott leads frank conversations about race and discrimination. 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. They were forced to sit on the back rows and had to use a . It's cruel to white children and will cause them great psychological damage. The act of treating students differently was obviously a metaphor for the social decisions made on a larger level. Two education professors in England, Ivor F. Goodson and Pat Sikes, suggest that Elliott's experiment was unethical because the participants weren't informed of its real purpose beforehand. One even wrote a lipstick message with racial slurs. We use them to divide and destroy people., On Understanding The Different Ways We Treat Other Races, Philip Zimbardo (Biography + Experiments). In this photograph from Sept. 13, 1965, Black children on their way to school in New York City pass by segregationists protesting integrated busing. New York: Elsevier Science. "That you, Ms. Knowing that her experiment would have consequences, Jane remained committed to her course. The Brown Eyed / Blue Eyed Experiment. Words are the most powerful weapon devised by humankind. She wanted to show her students that an arbitrarily established difference could separate them and pit them against each other. Role Theory: Expectations, Identities, and Behaviors. While Jane Elliot's experiment makes several assumptions, it also has some ethical concerns. Ethical issues were 1/3 of the participants refused to take the head off the rat . Nevertheless, Elliott became as famous as a teacher could become in America. "I think third grade was too young for what she did. Elliott was even brought on The Tonight Show to talk about her experiences. Why'd they shoot that King?" It didnt take long for the children to turn on each other. Perhaps because the outcome seemed so optimistic and comforting, coverage of Elliott and the experiments alleged curative powers cropped up everywhere. 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). The experiment is to help the children to understand about prejudice and discrimination. She told the students that the brown-eyed children were inferior and repeated the experiment. "That's what I tried to teach, and that's what drove the other teachers crazy. When my grandchildren are old enough, I'd give anything if you'd try the exercise out on them. Jane Elliott, Creator of the "Blue/Brown Eyes" Experiment, Says Racism Is Easy To Fix. How do you think the world would change if everyone experienced the perils and setbacks that come with prejudice and discrimination? (2022, Apr 06). Tears formed in the corners of Elliott's 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. Biddle, B. J. . I was stunned. Thats how it started, and thats how it went all day long. We walked into the principal's office at RicevilleElementary School, Elliott's old haunt. 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 Everyone's tired of her. These initial criticisms didnt stop Elliott. ", Elliott replied, "Why are we so worried about the fragile egos of white children who experience a couple of hours of made-up racism one day when blacks experience real racism every day of their lives?". And they are smarter than blue-eyed people." The brown-eyed children got to sit in the front of the room, to go to lunch first, and to have more time at recess. The kids in the bottom group became timider and kept to themselves. They gossiped about her in the hallway. "Do blue-eyed people remember what they've been taught?" Keep me from judging a man until I have walked a mile in his moccasins. This is a Sioux saying. . This was the smaller group. ", The two hugged, and Whisenhunt had tears streaming down her cheeks. The exercise is "an inoculation against racism," she says. One caller complained that white children would not be able to handle the exercise and would be seriously damaged by the exercise. "She could get kids to do anything she wanted them to," he says of Elliott. 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 . She then made the blue-eyed students believe that they were better and smarter than their counterparts. She asked her students, who were all white, whether or not they knew what it felt like to be judged by the color of their skin. Jane Elliot's experiment explains the reasons for discrimination to a small extent. I think it can. Need an original essay on Essay Sample: Ethical Concerns in Jane Elliot's Experiment? Jane Elliott's experiment of dividing an otherwise homogenous group of school kids by their eye color. ", 2023 Smithsonian Magazine The day after Martin Luther King Jr. was shot, Elliott had a talk with her students about diversity and racism. 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. Jane Elliots work and experiences have made her an authority on education and anti-racism. Kids on top would tease the children who were deemed as the inferior group. The blue eyes brown eyes study was a study on group prejudice and discrimination conducted by Jane Elliot. The results showed a reversal effect in which the blue-eyed students showed signs of inferiority and low self-esteem. "This here is Jane Elliott," I said. The video . The blue-eyed participants faced discrimination for two and a half hours. "Blue-eyed people sit around and do nothing. 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. 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. "Would you like to come on the show?" Junior high, maybe. It has everything to do with power.. 4 Pages. ", We backed out. The study also violates the American Principles of Psychologist codes of conduct making its replication or further investigation unethical. 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. Her class, In 1970, she demonstrated it for educators at a White House Conference on Children and Youth. Articles and opinions on happiness, fear and other aspects of human psychology. 2012 2023 . Privacy Statement 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's Blue-Eyed versus Brown-Eyed Students experiment was conducted to determine whether racism was a learned characteristic. The test also included violation of consent in which participation of the children was made involuntarily. Still, Elliott said the last few years have brought out America's worst racist tendencies. Brown-eyed people, she told the students, are smarter, more civilized and better than blue-eyed people.
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