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. She asked the other teachers what they were doing to bring news of the King assassination into their classrooms. Additionally, the brown-eyed students got to sit in the front of the class, while the blue-eyed kids . The brown-eyed students also exercised a certain level of power over the blue-eyed students when they put the armbands on them. She has . 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. Focusing on ethics the experiment violated some of the principles and codes of conduct established by the American Psychological Association. The students initially involved wished that everyone could participate in an exercise like this. 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. The students were surprised, but they didnt argue. Sadly, these conversations are still relevant today. Jane Elliott, shown here in 2009, remains an outspoken advocate against racism. "Eye color, hair color and skin color are caused by a chemical," Elliott went on, writing MELANIN on the blackboard. In fact, most of the initial response was negative. Amitai Etzioni, a sociologist at George WashingtonUniversity, says the exercise helps develop character and empathy. ", A former teacher, Ruth Setka, 79, said she was perhaps the only teacher who would still talk to Elliott. "We give our children shots to inoculate them against polio and smallpox, to protect them against the realities in the future. View Module 2 Discussion_ Are We Still Divided_ Blue Eyes_Brown Eyes_ A 3rd Grade Lesson for Us All.pdf from HUMN 330 at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. 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. Is your time best spent reading someone elses essay? 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. Tears formed in the corners of Elliott's eyes. Even though the response to the Blue Eyes Brown Eyes exercise was initially negative, it made Jane Elliott a leading figure in diversity training. Order from one of our vetted writers instead. On the day after Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered in April 1968, Jane Elliott's third graders from the small, all-white town of Riceville, Iowa, came to class . The blue eyes brown eyes study was a study on group prejudice and discrimination conducted by Jane Elliot. The secretary on duty looked up, startled, as if she had just seen a ghost. "We'll just be a couple of minutes. 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. "It's happening every day in this country, right now," she said in an interview with Morning Edition. "Hey, Mrs. Elliott," Steven yelled as he slung his books on his desk. The experiment, known as Blue Eyes Brown Eyes experiment, is regarded as an eye-opening way for children to learn about racism and discrimination. Or alternatively you may decide to keep them in ignorance of what is happening. 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 . "Blue-eyed people sit around and do nothing. 980 Words. 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. Elliott pulled out green construction paper armbands and asked each of the blue . The minimal group paradigm has shaped an entire methodology in social psychology. 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. ", We backed out. Her bold experiment to teach Iowa third graders about racial prejudice divided townspeople and thrust her onto the national stage. Blue-eyed children got five extra minutes of recess. Its not surprising to anyone that some social groups discriminate against others due to ethnicity, religion, or culture. Why are we still talking about this experiment over 50 years later? When the blue-eyed group saw that the brown-eyed group was going to be seated first, some became upset. Essay Sample: Ethical Concerns in Jane Elliot's Experiment. ", The two hugged, and Whisenhunt had tears streaming down her cheeks. Folks leave their cars unlocked, keys in the ignition. In this article, we talk about leadership and female discrimination.. You must get the parents first. When she went downtown to do errands, she heard whispers. The selection was based on the color of the eye for each group. One caller complained that white children would not be able to handle . 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. March 26, 1985. When Elliott walked into the teachers' lounge the next Monday, several teachers got up and walked out. Ethical issues were 1/3 of the participants refused to take the head off the rat . Your Privacy Rights Then a picture was taken to remember. SYNOPSIS OF BLUE EYED. Some residents were furious. Jane Elliott's experiment. "She stirs people up. These initial criticisms didnt stop Elliott. "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. Fourteen years later, the students featured in The Eye of the Storm reunited and discussed their experiences with Elliott. We use them to divide and destroy people., On Understanding The Different Ways We Treat Other Races, Philip Zimbardo (Biography + Experiments). Thousands of educators across the United States folded the experiment into their curriculums. ", Steve Harnack, 62, served as the elementary school principal beginning in 1977. "I understand this is the first time you've flown?" 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. Most Riceville residents seem to have an opinion of Elliott, whether or not they've met her. 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. 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 she separated the class by eye color and announced that blue-eyed children were superior, Paul Bodensteiner objected at every turn. Could you?". Elliott shared the essays with her mother, who showed them to the editor of the weekly Riceville Recorder. Elliott is nothing if not stubborn. All rights reserved. hide caption. The students started to internalize, and accept, the characteristics they'd been arbitrarily assigned based on the color of their eyes. The assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968 prompted educator Jane Elliott to create the now-famous "blue eyes/brown eyes exercise.". The subjects were 164 students enrolled in eight sections of an introductory elementary education course at a state university. On Thursday, April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, TN. They felt superior and had the support of the authority figure (the teacher). Pasicznyk joined 75 other employees for a training session in the companys suburban Denver headquarters in the late 1980s. Children with brown eyes were forced to wear armbands that made it easy for people to see that they had brown eyes. 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 . Elliott had hoped that this experiment would help the children to better understand the feelings of discrimination that certain groups feel on a daily basis, but what she didn . 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. 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. When the exercise ended, some of the kids hugged, some cried. 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. I felt mad. Practical Psychology began as a collection of study material for psychology students in 2016, created by a student in the field. Jane Elliott's brown eye/blue eye experiment starts at 03:10 of A Class Divided. After the exercise white college students in . Would you? The second day, Elliott reversed the groups. 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. The idea of white privilege is closely tied to Elliotts initial question to her students. One key assumption is that the sample population represents an actual society. 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. Order from one of our vetted writers instead, First name should have at least 2 letters, Phone number should have at least 10 digits, Free Essay with a Response to Cross Words by UIW President Louis Agnese, How Does Donald Duk View His Chinese Heritage? Elliott flew to the NBC studio in New York City. 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. (She prefers the term "exercise.") 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. 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. She and Darald split their time between a converted schoolhouse in Osage, Iowa, a town 18 miles from Riceville, and a home near Riverside, California. 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. It is a must . Elliott split her students into two groups, based on eye color. "That you, Ms. Youve probably heard different versions of it. She noticed that student relationships had changed; even if students were friendly outside of the exercise, they treated each other with arrogance or bossiness once the roles were assigned. And StanfordUniversity psychologist Philip G. Zimbardo writes in his 1979 textbook, Psychology and Life, that Elliott's "remarkable" experiment tried to show "how easily prejudiced attitudes may be formed and how arbitrary and illogical they can be." While Jane Elliot's experiment makes several assumptions, it also has some ethical concerns. Jane Elliott, a teacher and anti-racism activist, performed a direct experiment with the students in her classroom. Everyone looked at Mrs. Elliott. Before proceeding with the test, she began with random questions to fully understand the children's perception of Negroes. She says its because racism, sexism, homophobia, ageism, and ethnocentrism are mean and nasty. "The browneyed people are the better people in this room," Elliott began. Yet what Elliott did continues to stir controversy. Jane Elliott's Blue-Eyed versus Brown-Eyed Students experiment was conducted to determine whether racism was a learned characteristic. Issues such as the right to know, the right to privacy, and informed consent. "People of other color groups seem to understand," she said. She told them brown-eyed . It also shows how arbitrary and subjective things can turn friends, family members, and citizens against each other. Thus, the dominant group, supported by the authorities, will always have the upper hand. The results were the same. She has since refused to answer any of my inquiries. Website. She told them that people with brown eyes were superior to those with blue eyes, for reasons she made up. 4. How do you think the world would change if everyone experienced the perils and setbacks that come with prejudice and discrimination? Elliott instructed the blue-eyed kids not to play on the jungle gym or swings. 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. Kellen Castineiras PSY Dr. Gail C. Flanagan February 6, 2022. . The act of treating students differently was obviously a metaphor for the social decisions made on a larger level. That got the other teachers angry. To back up my statement Bloom (2005) says Jane Elliott's blue-eyes brown-eyes exercise encouraged children to mistrust authority figures. "It changed my life. 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. They all either smiled or laughed and nodded.". But Elliotts experiment had a more sinister impact. SpeedyPaper.com 2023 All rights reserved. Why'd they shoot that King?" "No person of any age [was] going to leave my presence with those attitudes unchallenged," Elliott said. Two years later, a BBC documentary captured the experiment in Elliott's classroom. 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. You didnt understand the directions. 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.
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