In fact, most of the initial response was negative. At her lunch break that day in the teacher's lounge, she told her colleagues about the exercise. The people of riceville did not exactly welcome Elliott home from New York with a hayride. 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. THE ANGRY EYE , a 35-minute video, features Jane Elliott conducting her Blue Eyed/Brown Eyed exercise with college students. That might have been the end of it, but a month later, Elliott says, Johnny Carson called her. The Blue Eyes Brown Eyes exercise received national attention shortly after it ended. Keep me from judging a man until I have walked a mile in his moccasins. This is a Sioux saying. Elliott was even brought on The Tonight Show to talk about her experiences. 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. The nearest traffic light is 20 miles away. "That's what I tried to teach, and that's what drove the other teachers crazy. Blue-eyed people would get 5 extra minutes on the playground and blue-eyed people could not talk to brown-eyed people. I think it can. Jane Elliot's 'The Blue Eyes and Brown Eyes Experiment' was unethical in that she created a segregated environment in a third grade classroom. She learned that the responses from the children were negative and more generalized about what they thought about black people. 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 . 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. Elliot's approach to the experiment involved creativity in which the pupils' age and ability to comprehend discrimination was taken into account. The results showed a . 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. 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. ", Elliott says the role of a teacher is to enhance students' moral development. Before proceeding with the test, she began with random questions to fully understand the children's perception of Negroes. However, in this classroom, having blue-eyes had become a condition of inferiority. Elliott was featured on nearly every national news show in America for decades. 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 students initially involved wished that everyone could participate in an exercise like this. Not a day goes by without me thinking about it, Ms. Elliott. ", 2023 Smithsonian Magazine She was a local girl and the other teachers were intimidated by her success. Order original essays online. Elliott started to see her own white privilege, even her own ignorance. They are more civilized than blue-eyed people. Advertising Notice Melanin, she said, is what causes intelligence. Elliotts coworkers avoided her after her appearance on The Tonight Show. In the documentary, she said that she conducted the original blue-eyes, brown-eyes experiment to make a positive change. To begin with, Jane Elliot's experiment involved deception in which the children were made in believing that change in eye color influence intelligence. Yes, the children felt angry, hurt, betrayed. That's what it feels like when you're discriminated against.". According to the article is Jane Elliot's experiment to small degree effective. Directed by William Peters, the episode profiles the Iowa schoolteacher Jane Elliott and her class of third graders, who took part in a class exercise about discrimination and prejudice in 1970 and reunited in the present day to recall the experience. Is your time best spent reading someone elses essay? 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 . Jane would get invited to go to Timbuktu to give a speech. They are cleaner than blue-eyed people. The idea of white privilege is closely tied to Elliotts initial question to her students. Professor Jane Elliott performed a group experiment with her students that they would never forget. "Would you like to come on the show?" At this point you may wish to tell the pupils that you are conducting an "experiment" to look at what prejudice is. For many, the experiment went horribly awry. "It changed my life. The ethical concerns arising from the experiment are consent and deception. She was hesitant to enroll in Elliotts workshop but was told that if she wanted to succeed as a manager, shed have to attend. As the morning wore on, brown-eyed kids berated their blue-eyed classmates. 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. She wanted them to understand what discrimination felt like. Would you like to find out? "We give our children shots to inoculate them against polio and smallpox, to protect them against the realities in the future. If you are the original author of this essay and no longer wish to have it published on the The results are mixed. Would you like to get this essay by email? She told them that people with brown eyes were better than people with blue eyes. The test violated the principle of respect for people's rights and dignity. The Blue-Eyes, Brown-Eyes Experiment. She says its because racism, sexism, homophobia, ageism, and ethnocentrism are mean and nasty. That spring morning 37 years ago, the blue-eyed children were set apart from the children with brown or green eyes. There is a way to avoid editing or writing from scratch! "Because we might catch something," a brown-eyed boy said. As a result of those divisions, you see racial discrimination or even terrorism. 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. They all either smiled or laughed and nodded.". Weve been here before, with unsettling and disturbing results. 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. Was The Blue Eyes Brown Eyes Experiment Ethical? She split the class in two categories, according to eye color, and told the children that one group was superior to the others. 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. I have brown eyes. 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. "They are cleaner and they are smarter.". Having in mind that it would be difficult to explain to third graders about discrimination, she needed to be more practical so that her student could understand how discrimination and prejudice felt. 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. 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. She could feel a chasm forming between the two groups of students. "We'll just be a couple of minutes. . The musical is about romance, but it integrates issues of race and discrimination (Norris, 2014), and the song is about how discrimination is taught carefully, in long term. "You have to put the exercise in the context of the rest of the year. "No person of any age [was] going to leave my presence with those attitudes unchallenged," Elliott said. She nodded. Their response is to create dichotomies of inferiority and superiority. APA principles acknowledge that individuals rights to privacy, self-determination, and confidentiality is paramount to all psychological activities. 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. See Page 1. 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. Elliott turned into Americas mother of diversity training. You must get the parents first. When she went downtown to do errands, she heard whispers. Even though some of the children said yes, Elliott pushed back. She said she watched and was horrified at what she saw. There were more brown-eyed students in the room. Subsequently the brown-eyed children stopped objecting, even when Miss Elliott and the blue-eyed kids chastised and bullied them. And the exercise continued in a similar fashion to how it was executed the day before. The video . The secretary on duty looked up, startled, as if she had just seen a ghost. Junior high, maybe. Elliott pulled out green construction paper armbands and asked each of the blue . 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. Elliot said that when the children were given the test on the same day that they were in the superior group, they tended to get the highest scores. Could you?". Jane Elliott, a teacher and anti-racism activist, performed a direct experiment with the students in her classroom. In response to the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968, Jane Elliott devised the controversial and startling, "Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes Exercise." This, now famous, exercise labels participants as inferior or superior based solely upon the color of their eyes and exposes them to the experience of . (2010). Even family members can turn against each other if some authority suddenly decides that those differences are a problem. "How do you think it would feel to be a Negro boy or girl?" Elliott? . But not Elliott. 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. Yet what Elliott did continues to stir controversy. The blue-eyed girl apologized. It also documents small-town White America's reflex reaction to the . 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? Thats how it started, and thats how it went all day long. ( 1985-03-26) " A Class Divided " is a 1985 episode of the PBS series Frontline. The results were the same. Issues such as the right to know, the right to privacy, and informed consent. We have to let people find out how it feels to be on the receiving end of that which we dish out so readily.". On Friday, April 5, 1968, in Riceville, IA, a third-grade student walked . Is it even possible today? Jane Elliott has done a lot of reflection about the consequences of the minimal group experiment. "I think third grade was too young for what she did. The selection was based on the color of the eye for each group. one girl asked. "It's the same thing over and over again," Cross says. 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. She wanted to show her students that an arbitrarily established difference could separate them and pit them against each other. On the morning of april 5, 1968, a Friday, Steven Armstrong stepped into Jane Elliott's third-grade classroom in Riceville, Iowa. 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. Jane Elliott's Blue Eyes and Brown Eyes experiment was a turning point in social psychology. They embraced the experiments reductive message, as well as its promised potential, thereby keeping the implausible rationale of Elliotts crusade alive and well for decades, however flawed and racist it really was. ", That spring morning 37 years ago, the blue-eyed children were set apart from the children with brown or green eyes. The Brown Eyed / Blue Eyed Experiment. Carson asked, grinning. ", We backed out. [White people] on the other hand, don't have to understand them. Want a quality guarantee? 4. "She could get kids to do anything she wanted them to," he says of Elliott. Her class, Brown-eyed people. 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 . 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. American Psychological Association, 4. "Your son got what he deserved," the woman said. "We are repeating the blue-eyed/brown-eyed exercise on a daily basis.". 10 Psychological Experiments That Could Never Happen Today. She continued to conduct the exercise with her third graders. 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 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. 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. That's not true. "People of other color groups seem to understand," she said. 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. School ought to be about developing character, but most teachers won't touch that with a ten-foot pole.". "I think these children walked in a colored child's moccasins for a day," she was quoted as saying. In doing the research for my book with scores of peoples who were participants in the experiment, I reached out to Elliott. Thousands of educators across the United States folded the experiment into their curriculums. 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. She has . Once indoors, the brown-eyed group was then treated to coffee and doughnuts, while the blue-eyed group could only stand around and wait. When the exercise ended, some of the kids hugged, some cried. She has made statements about the increase in hate crimes and racism in recent years. Elliott rattled off the rules for the day, saying blue-eyed kids had to use paper cups if they drank from the water fountain. These initial criticisms didnt stop Elliott. They felt superior and had the support of the authority figure (the teacher). 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 . PracticalPie.com is a participant in the Amazon Associates Program. Words are the most powerful weapon devised by humankind. One scholar asserts that it is "Orwellian" and teaches whites "self-contempt." She has since refused to answer any of my inquiries. Articles and opinions on happiness, fear and other aspects of human psychology. 2012 2023 . Proceeding with the experiment, Elliot divided the children into two groups each with nine pupils. Jane Elliot's experiment involves cheating and intentional misinterpretation of facts. Outside, rows of corn stretched to the horizon. "Black children grow up accustomed to such behavior, but white children, there's no way they could possibly understand it. Jane Elliott, shown here in 2009, remains an outspoken advocate against racism. 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 . The interaction only strengthened Elliott's resolve. Danko, M. (2013). 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 . A difference as simple as eye color, defined and established by the authority figure, created a rift between the students. Elliott split her students into two groups, based on eye color. A smart blue-eyed girl who had never had problems with multiplication tables started making mistakes. The latter felt discriminated against by the other brown-eyed children. Tears formed in the corners of Elliott's eyes. ", 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?". ", Absolutely not. "How dare you try this cruel experiment out on white children," one said. She has appeared on the "Oprah Winfrey Show" five times. Theyd have to use paper cups if they drank from the water fountain. Elliott separated her all-white class of students into two groups: blue-eyed children and brown-eyed children. The results showed a reversal effect in which the blue-eyed students showed signs of inferiority and low self-esteem. "He's a bluey! She also made the brown-eyed students put construction paper armbands on the blue-eyed students. It didnt take long for the children to turn on each other. Thats just the way blue-eyed kids were, Elliott told the students. She told them that people with brown eyes were superior to those with blue eyes, for reasons she made up. Why'd they shoot that King?" On Thursday, April 4, 1968, Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, TN. To most people, it seemed to suggest that racism could be reduced, even eliminated, by a one- or two-day exercise. ", A chorus of "Yeahs" went up, and so began one of the most astonishing exercises ever conducted in an American classroom. "If this ugly change, if this negative change can happen this quickly, why can't positive change happen that quickly? When Elliott first conducted the exercise in 1968, brown-eyed students were given special privileges. Professor of Journalism, University of Iowa. ", Then, the inevitable: "Hey, Mrs. Elliott, how come you're the teacher if you've got blue eyes?" ", The two hugged, and Whisenhunt had tears streaming down her cheeks. In 1970, she demonstrated it for educators at a White House Conference on Children and Youth. Jane Elliott on The Tonight Show on May 31, 1968. The children were not aware of the experiment, and therefore they could not give their permission of involvement. 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. 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. When some of the . Children with brown eyes were forced to wear armbands that made it easy for people to see that they had brown eyes. The idea was simple but profound. Within a few hours of starting the exercise, Elliott noticed big differences in the childrens behavior and how they treated each other. Copyright 20102023, The Conversation Media Group Ltd. The kids in the bottom group became timider and kept to themselves. She says that its shocking how children whore normally kind, cooperative, and friendly with each other suddenly become arrogant, discriminatory, and hostile when they belong to a superior group. 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. "You better apologize to us for getting in our way because we're better than you are," one of the brownies said. It brings up immediate anger and hatred. "I don't think this community was ready for what she did," he said. Despite the adaptation of the experiment in psychological studies, Jane has been widely criticized for her unethical conduct and promotion of discrimination among children. Jane Elliott's Blue-Eyed versus Brown-Eyed Students experiment was conducted to determine whether racism was a learned characteristic. Elliott asked. She asked the other teachers what they were doing to bring news of the King assassination into their classrooms. The Blue Eye/Brown Eye was an experiment performed by Jane Elliot in 1968 on the day after Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. 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. Grasping for a scientific explanation, she ended up claiming that melanin makes eyes darker, and makes . The never-before-told true story of Jane Elliott and the "Blue-Eyes, Brown-Eyes Experiment" she made world-famous, using eye color to simulate racism. 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. On the first day of the two-day experiment, Elliott told the . The following are some of her most insightful quotes on these issues. How can we teach kids to be more like him? "It's Riceville 30 years ago. "There's a sense of renewal here that I've never seen anywhere else," Elliott says. Additionally, the brown-eyed students got to sit in the front of the class, while the blue-eyed kids . Malinda Whisenhunt? Thus, the dominant group, supported by the authorities, will always have the upper hand. On the first day of the experiment, Elliott told the children who had blue eyes that they were superior to the children with brown eyes; that they were better, nicer and smarter. In this photograph from Sept. 13, 1965, Black children on their way to school in New York City pass by segregationists protesting integrated busing. SpeedyPaper website, please click below to request its removal: Liked this essay sample but need an original one? The searing story is a cautionary tale that examines power and privilege in and out of the classroom. The second day, Elliott reversed the groups. 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.
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