A Class DIvided Essay

Years ago, in a classroom with so-called innocent and impressionable minds, the children in Ms. Elliot’s class were exposed to an experiment that forever altered their vision of discrimination. Unbeknownst to them at the time, the outcome of their participation would later become adopted as study material and models for workshops, for future scholars and employees. This brief exercise, originating back to 1968 and titled A Class Divided, demonstrated concepts such as bias within groups, the repercussions of discrimination, how cultural upbringing can play a role in one’s racial perceptions, and that adults can be similarly impacted by intentional bias. Such experimentation naturally brings up the matter of ethics, and begs the question whether or not such a study would be conducted in a classroom today, and if so, would one let their child participate. Controversial research and methods can be eye-opening to read about, but might have nuggets of wisdom for willing scholars.

Jane Elliott, international famous teachers, lecturers, diversity coach, as well as the national mental health association outstanding awards winner, exposed the bias and prejudice, it is an irrational class system based on pure random factors. If you think that doesn't apply to you. ... You're in a rude awakening. In response to the assassination of Martin Luther King jr., 30 years ago, Jane Elliott designed the controversial blue eyes/brown eyes campaign. This is now famous, according to the participants' eye color, to refer to participants as inferior or outstanding, and to expose them to the experience of a few. Every person who touches on Jane Elliott's work, whether through lectures, seminars or video, has been dramatically affected.

In elementary school, students study the Civil War, and the Civil Rights movement. Teachers speak about slavery and racism as if it were a thing of the past; and juvenile minds are lead to believe that Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream has finally come true. But as these futile minds mature, they encounter different versions of this “dream”. Caucasian faces may live to believe the world is a blissful place, but scoff at the waitress who struggles to speak english. Brown faces may look at the homosexual couple in disgust, but grow accustom to the stares that come with wearing a hijab in public places. And black faces may ostracize the interracial couple in their circle, but learn the dangers of not removing their hoodies when they walk in a

I enjoyed watching Frontline video, and was surprised to see how quickly privileged group of children accepted their roles and turned to discriminating group of third graders. Inferior group of children felt humiliated, demoralized, and even performed poorly on their tests. It is astonishing that on the second day of the experiment, after being discriminated, brown-eyed children gladly accepted their new roles and turned to bigots.

For instance, the blue-eyed children were informed that they had higher intelligence and learning ability. Furthermore, they were given special privileges of sitting in front of the class, receiving second helpings at lunch, and were the only ones who could play on the new jungle gym at recess, plus receiving five extra minutes of recess time. However, the taking away of privileges resulted in negative effects for the brown-eyed children. They became depressed and scored lower on tests. Consequently, the blue-eyed children became the minority group and experienced the same negative effects as the brown-eyed

Consider Jane Elliott’s explanation of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. to her third-grade classroom. To make the abstract idea of racism concrete, she separated brown-eyed children from blue-eyed children, proclaiming that the brown-eyed children were superiors. After the children experienced concrete racism, Elliott switched the roles of two groups and further demonstrated the concreteness of racism.

light of a true education, and have to remain in the dark all of their

A Class Divided is a documentary about Jane Elliot, a third grade teacher who changed the view on discrimination for many. Following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, her students were confused as to how someone could do such a thing to their hero of the month, this is when Jane knew she had to do something. She realized that her students had no firsthand experience of discrimination, and has thought about her experiment for quite some time. This is when she finally decided it was time to make a difference, and change the lives of her students for years to come. Her lesson was focused on “taking the role of the other”, as discussed in our class. This term means “putting yourself in someone else’s shoes; understanding how someone else feels and thinks, so you can anticipate how that person will act”. (Henslin)

To demonstrate to the children how societal attitudes and mistreatments can affect one’s performance, she tested her third graders’ performances using a phonics card pack. The first day, when the brown-eyed students were told they were not as good as the blue-eyed students it took them five and a half minutes to get through the card pack. The next day, it only took them two and a half minutes. Before you go thinking this was just because they had been tested on it two days in a row, it should be noted that the same thing happened to the blue-eyed students. When they were the superior people, it only took them three minutes, the second day it took them four minutes and 18 seconds.

The phrase “don’t judge a book by its cover” has become cliché, but the movie, “A Class Divided” sheds light on the random differences society uses to judge. This movie reveals the results of a brown eye/blue eye discrimination exercise created and conducted by 3rd grade teacher, Jane Elliot. Elliot creates a sample society out of her classroom in Iowa, the first day the students with brown eyes are disadvantaged and reviled and the students with blue eyes are praised as being superior and privileged. The second day of the experiment the roles were reversed. The children involved learned first hand what is means to discriminate and be discriminated against. This exercise and the movie, “A Class Divided” simplifies and relates racism in a way that allows a more rational understanding of minorities and racism as a social creation.

This paper will touch on a number of issues from discrimination, prejudice, conformity and the effects of it on us as a society. In a small town in Riceville, Iowa a teacher named Jane Elliott did an experiment on her 3rd grade class, called the Blue eyes – Brown eyes exercise. Jane Elliott hoped that her exercise would help her students understand what discrimination really meant and how it felt. The film deals with racism and prejudice along with frustration, anger and pain, these feelings are not uncommon when dealing with bias and inequity. So I ask you to think about some questions to ask yourself and others you know, who suffers with discrimination today? What is conformity? And what would you say is the cause of racism?

On the day following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., third grade teacher Mrs. Elliot altered her lesson plans surrounding the class unit on discrimination to concretely teach the students by having them experience the unfairness of bigotry firsthand. In 1970, the lesson was filmed for a documentary to demonstrate the implications of stereotypes. The class was split into two groups based on a characteristic of minimal importance in the societal context: eye-color, to develop stereotypical behaviors among the students. On Tuesday, the first day of the experiment, the students were deemed the “blue-eyed students” and the “brown-eyed students.” In order, to develop the same type of racism that is generated among whites and colors, Mrs. Elliot started to describe the differences between the two groups. The brown-eyed students were deemed less intelligent and inform that they would be allowed five minutes less time for recess, not be allowed to use the drinking fountain and had to wear collars so they could be identified. Additionally, the two groups could not participate in any activities together and to demonstrate their incompetence that was initially dismissed by the blue-eyed students she provided examples in which the student hit their little sister or forgot their glasses deeming them forgetful, incompetent and mean. For the second day of the lesson, the roles were reversed and similar stereotypes were appointed.

The biggest problem the United States is facing currently and has been, continuously, is racism. This form of prejudice has been seen and acknowledged everywhere from news stations to high schools and colleges. However, racism is usually paired with harsh results such as death, war, and hatred, which affect communities and various ethnic groups. According to sociology professors Yeonjin Lee, Mark Hatzenbuhler, and education personnel, Peter Muennig, Ichiro Kawachi, they discovered collective prejudice within black and white communities displayed a relationship of high mortality risk (2015). Although there are other effects, death and injury are two that encompass the whole issue. We have seen this in our media with the cases of African American college students being attacked on campus grounds to the shooting of Trevon Martin an African American boy who was shot by a neighbor. However, blacks are not the only ones being targeted, so are Muslims, indigenous people, and people of mixed races.

Interestingly, the controversial experiment came about from the aftermath of the murder of civil rights leader, Martin Luther King. This led to Elliott’s realization that it was time to take a more proactive approach to teaching discrimination. From the 1870s to the end of the 19th century, racial segregation had been distinctively prominent when the Jim Crow laws was enforced across America, mandating segregation in all public facilities, particularly distinct in the southern states (Fuller, 2008). This elicited the emergence of the civil rights movement in which Martin Luther King brought awareness and light to the blatant racism people had started to accept as a norm as King fought for social justice and combated racial inequality and bigotry through the use of nonviolence tactics (Younge, 2003). There has been significant improvement since then as efforts aimed at reversing racial segregation have been made, eliminating segregation and allowing for racial integration in schools, workplace, neighborhoods, and military. However, the media is still producing negative views and opinions on African Americans thereby reinforcing racial stereotypes that still linger at the back of people’s minds (Donaldson, 2015). Therefore, it is important for parents and educators to teach children to be free of racial bias in order to cultivate a diverse and egalitarian society.