"Black children grow up accustomed to such behavior, but white children, there's no way they could possibly understand it. 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. Ethical Principles of Psychologists & Code of Conduct - StudyMode 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. See Page 1. ", A chorus of "Yeahs" went up, and so began one of the most astonishing exercises ever conducted in an American classroom. Elliott created the blue-eyes/brown-eyes classroom exercise in 1968 to teach students about racism. "They are cleaner and they are smarter.". SpeedyPaper.com 2023 All rights reserved. "You have to put the exercise in the context of the rest of the year. Some residents were furious. Did We Fail the Blue Eyes, Brown Eyes ExperimentOr Did It Fail Us? She nodded. Proceeding with the experiment, Elliot divided the children into two groups each with nine pupils. "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. On April 4 1968, King was killed by the single . Answer (1 of 3): My guess is that is doesn't really represent racism but classism. We Are Repeating The Discrimination Experiment Every Day, Says - KQED Jane elliots the blue eyes and brown eyes experiment - Course Hero "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 interaction only strengthened Elliott's resolve. They gossiped about her in the hallway. It brings up immediate anger and hatred. 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. Brown-eyed people, she told the students, are smarter, more civilized and better than blue-eyed people. Evaluation of Jane Elliott's "Blue-Eyed Brown-Eyes" If you have ever heard of the self-fulfilling prophecy, these results may not come as a surprise. Amitai Etzioni, a sociologist at George WashingtonUniversity, says the exercise helps develop character and empathy. The secretary said the south side of the building was closed, something about waxing the hallways. Melanin, she said, is what causes intelligence. The minimal group paradigm has shaped an entire methodology in social psychology. The students started to internalize, and accept, the characteristics they'd been arbitrarily assigned based on the color of their eyes. "The browneyed people are the better people in this room," Elliott began. And the exercise continued in a similar fashion to how it was executed the day before. They don't replace the diagnosis, advice, or treatment of a professional. 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. "It changed my life. 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. Mental Floss, 4. . If you white folks want to be treated the way blacks are in this society, stand. That says very plainly that you know whats happening, you know you dont want it for you. Jane would get invited to go to Timbuktu to give a speech. It is quite powerful to watch. They are cleaner than blue-eyed people. 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. "Do blue-eyed people remember what they've been taught?" 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. "If this ugly change, if this negative change can happen this quickly, why can't positive change happen that quickly? It is a must . She told them brown-eyed . She left teaching in the mid-80s to speak publicly about the experience and the impact of prejudice and racism. . The goal of the minimal group paradigm is to establish subjective differences and create a climate of favoritism. 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.". "She could get kids to do anything she wanted them to," he says of Elliott. 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. Danko, M. (2013). Social Emotional Learning Lessons for Jane Elliott - Advancement Courses When she went downtown to do errands, she heard whispers. Their response is to create dichotomies of inferiority and superiority. ", The two hugged, and Whisenhunt had tears streaming down her cheeks. ", Others have praised Elliott's exercise. "Brown-eyed people have more of that chemical in their eyes, so brown-eyed people are better than those with blue eyes," Elliott said. Would you? 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 . Elliott split her students into two groups, based on eye color. She was hesitant to enroll in Elliotts workshop but was told that if she wanted to succeed as a manager, shed have to attend. SYNOPSIS OF BLUE EYED. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. American Psychological Association, 4. ", That spring morning 37 years ago, the blue-eyed children were set apart from the children with brown or green eyes. From the moment the experiment begins, Jane Elliott uses a mean tone to speak to the participants. Theyd have to use paper cups if they drank from the water fountain. ", We backed out. 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. . 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. Let's just move on. The brown-eyed children didnt want to play with the blue-eyes during recess. The empathy she works to inspire in students with the experiment, which has been modified over the years, is necessary, she said. those with brown eyes (or hazel eyes). What Was the Purpose of the Blue Eyes Brown Eyes Experiment? ", 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?". Though Jane's actions were justifiable because she was not a psychologist, her experiment cannot be replicated in the present society. 1. Elliott shared the essays with her mother, who showed them to the editor of the weekly Riceville Recorder. 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 . On the second day, the roles were reversed, and those with brown eyes received special treatment, and the blue-eyed children were made to feel inferior (A Class, 2003). "You better apologize to us for getting in our way because we're better than you are," one of the brownies said. We walked into the principal's office at RicevilleElementary School, Elliott's old haunt. Dick DeMarsico/New York World-Telegram & the Sun Newspaper Photograph Collection/PhotoQuest/Getty Images, Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images, Committee Member - MNF Research Advisory Committee, PhD Scholarship - Uncle Isaac Brown Indigenous Scholarship. On the "Tonight Show" Carson broke the ice by spoofing Elliott's rural roots. A second look at the blue-eyes, brown-eyes experiment that taught third-graders about racism. There is a way to avoid editing or writing from scratch! One caller complained that white children would not be able to handle the exercise and would be seriously damaged by the exercise. Additionally, the brown-eyed students got to sit in the front of the class, while the blue-eyed kids . "Eye color, hair color and skin color are caused by a chemical," Elliott went on, writing MELANIN on the blackboard. The next day when the tables were turned, "I felt like quitting school. Jane Elliot's experiment involves cheating and intentional misinterpretation of facts. Weve been here before, with unsettling and disturbing results. Elliott was shocked by the results and decided to switch the roles the following day. In this scenario, students are told brown-eyed people . But Paul, one of eight siblings and the son of a dairy farmer, didnt buy Elliotts mollification. Introduction. (PDF) A Class Divided - ResearchGate Did we fail the blue eyes/brown eyes experiment or did it fail us? "Why?" The blue eyes brown eyes study was a study on group prejudice and discrimination conducted by Jane Elliot. It also documents small-town White America's reflex reaction to the . But Elliotts experiment had a more sinister impact. However, in this classroom, having blue-eyes had become a condition of inferiority. 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. 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. Nevertheless, Elliott became as famous as a teacher could become in America. ", Jane shielded her eyes from the morning sun. Strong, Effective and Ethical Lessons | Applied Social Psychology (ASP) "They shot that King yesterday. Solve your problem differently! The Blue Eye/Brown Eye was an experiment performed by Jane Elliot in 1968 on the day after Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. The "invisible knapsack" is an analogy for a set of invisible and not widely talked about privileges that white people possess in the society. January 1, 2003. Lasting Impact of Blue Eyes Brown Eyes Experiment, Words are the most powerful weapon devised by humankind. The blue-eyed girl apologized. 10 Psychological Experiments That Could Never Happen Today. Things even got violent at recess. Is your time best spent reading someone elses essay? She traveled to corporations, banks, prisons, schools and military bases. Back in the classroom, Elliott's experiment had taken on a life of its own. 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. Issues such as the right to know, the right to privacy, and informed consent. Elliott separated her all-white class of students into two groups: blue-eyed children and brown-eyed children. All rights reserved. Is your time best spent reading someone elses essay? Jane Elliot's 'The Blue Eyes and Brown Eyes Experiment' was unethical in that she created a segregated environment in a third grade classroom. ", When I met Elliott in 2003, she hadn't been back to Riceville in 12 years. One key assumption is that the sample population represents an actual society. "Blue-eyed people sit around and do nothing. The brown-eyed children began to act aggressive and mean towards the blue-eyed children. But they returned to a better placeunlike a child of color, who gets abused every day, and never has the ability to find him or herself in a nurturing classroom environment." (2013). Jane Elliott's experiment of dividing an otherwise homogenous group of school kids by their eye color. Thats just the way blue-eyed kids were, Elliott told the students. PDF TRAUMA-RELATED PSYCHOLOGY EXPERIMENTS - Boston University 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. ", Absolutely not. Nobodys standing here. The blue-eyed brown-eyed experiment was conducted by Jane Elliott, a school teacher from Iowa, in which she separated blue eyed children from brown eyed children and took turns making one of the "superior" to the other. She told her students that she had made a mistake the previous day and that brown-eyed students . "She said, on the day after Martin Luther King Jr. was killed, 'I don't know why you're doing that I thought it was about time somebody shot that son of a bitch,' " she said. 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. Ms. Elliott, now 87, said she started teaching about racism on April 5, 1968 the day after the Rev. The first thing that Jane Elliott did was divide the children into groups: those with blue eyes and those with brown eyes. Why do researchers use correlational studies? The exercise is "an inoculation against racism," she says. When some of the . When you read about this experiment, its hard not to question labels. 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. Jane Elliott on The Tonight Show on May 31, 1968. Sadly, these conversations are still relevant today. This is the phrase that inspired one of the most well-known experiments in education. 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 . 10," Elliott said. The arbitrary division among the students intensified over the course of the experiment, so much so that it actually ended in physical violence. Website. Not everyone appreciated Elliotts exercise. You've still got that same sweet smile. Was The Blue Eyes Brown Eyes Experiment Ethical? The hate and discrimination that we see in adults have their origin in their upbringing. Why is Jane Elliot's exercise problematic for some people? 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." Module 2 Discussion_ Are We Still Divided_ Blue Eyes_Brown Eyes_ A 3rd "We are repeating the blue-eyed/brown-eyed exercise on a daily basis.". 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. I have 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? One teacher ended up displaying the same bigotry Elliott had spent the morning trying to fight. You must get the parents first. One scholar asserts that it is "Orwellian" and teaches whites "self-contempt."