Film Analysis: A Class Divided

A League of Their Own (Marshall, 1992) explicitly characterizes an American era when a woman’s place was in the home. Even our modern perspective implicitly follows suit. Although women have gained rights and freedoms since the 1930’s, sexism remains prevalent in America. This film offers an illustration when men went to war and big business men utilized women as temporary replacements in factories, sports, and so on. Here, course concepts, such as gender socialization, gender expressions, role stereotypes, emotion expressions, and language, correspond to the film’s characters and themes.

On the first day of the experiment, the blue-eyed children, or the in-group, were told they were superior to the brown eyed children, the out-group. On top of being told they were better and smarter than the brown-eyed children, the out-group was not allowed to drink from the same fountain, play together at recess, or go back for seconds at lunch-time. The brown eyed children received less recess time, had to wait to go to lunch, and wore collars for easy recognition.

“A Class Divided”: When asked the question, “do you think you know how it feels to be judged by the color of your skin”, a few felt that they did. Initially the children were excited to participate in the blue-eyed/brown-eyed experiment, until they realized they would be the people being judged. Once the teacher announced that the blue-eyed people are the “better people” than the brown-eyed children, immediately voiced their disagreement. One blue-eyed boy stated, “My dad has brown eyes and he’s not stupid.”

Jane’s special project sparked when she told her young class of eight and nine year olds that blue-eyed people were smarter and were better than brown-eyed people. Blue-eyed children were allowed an extra five minutes at recess, could have extras at lunch, got to sit in the front of the classroom, and were greatly applauded for their successes. On the opposite spectrum, brown-eyed students were forced to wear navy fabric collars in order to be easily identified. The groups were forced into segregation and were not allowed to play with one another out on the playground. Even when a brown-eyed student is tormented, the exercise continues; it is all a part of the experiment. The next day, the children switched roles, allowing them to all comprehend the degrading and humiliating emotional aspects of being an “outsider”.

From observing the thirds graders in Jane Elliot experiment a class divided. It helps you see through the lenses of a group of children who can identify the differences of problem and issues when your labeled as individual who is less than. And it also makes you wonder how racism is brought out of certain groups in this country. The video also demonstrates a certain number of key of key pointers when telling the children right from wrong. When explaining that the children were quite confused why a person who has a different eye color was treated differently in society. The children in A Class Divided demonstrated the characteristics of "Kohlberg’s Moral reasoning stage 3".

She told her students that the blue-eyed students were superior to their brown-eyed friends. Within minutes, the way the two groups of students acted towards one another changed. Ms. Elliot, their teacher, started calling the blue-eyed division of the group “better and smarter” than their brown-eyed equivalents. She continued this by giving them more opportunities than the brown-eyed students. For example, they recieved seconds at lunch, as well as, extra time at recess. A blue-eyed student also went on to say, “You better keep the art stick close, [Ms. Elliot] in case you need to use it.” He meant to use it to punish a brown-eyed classmate. Once the teacher changed her views, the students did too. The students did not want to be different, so they followed their leader's example. Even though this part of the experiment only took place for a day, it seemed like it had occurred for a while. This is a great example of how once a leader changes his/her point of view, it’s followers will do the same, so they will not be seen as different or an

If I were a participant if one of Jane Elliott’s exercises, I would have expressed a variety of emotions. I would have felt frustrated by the way she belittled us and with the rules that she enforced. She enforced rules so that the blue eyed people would fail and for the brown eyed people to succeed. I would have also felt humiliated by the way she mocked the blue eyed people. I would have felt angry with her too for treating and talking to me as iI would have benefitted from participating in a similar activity, because of the lessons that were taught in it. The most important lesson is to treat others fairly and to not be ignorant. She makes this very clear when she says that she won’t feel sympathetic towards the blue eyed people, because there are people in this world who face this kind of treatment on a day-to-day basis.

The day after Martin King Jr. was shot a woman named Jane Elliot, a third grade teacher in Iowa, wanted to conduct a class experiment about racism. PBS did a documentary of this experiment and fourteen years reunited with the students to talk about their experience all on camera called, A Class Divided. Instead of lecturing these young kids about racism, Mrs. Elliot wanted her students to understand how it truly felt to be discriminated. She split the class between blue and brown eyed, students. The first day, students who were blue eye were superior and the brown eye students were worn collars and treated lesser than the blue eyes. The next day the roles were reversed so both sides could understand the importance of the experiment. Jane Elliot used her students as an example as to how empathy can be used to fight racial

The Frontline film Separate and Unequal discussed about creating a new school system; however, there are opposition by others who wants to maintain the current school system. If we look at the perspectives of the two groups, it is understandable in why there is support and opposition from the people of the city. The supporters of the new system wants a system that can provide better opportunities for their children without any violence. As the film claimed “the school was not teaching and were only babysitting the children”, which was likely a reason why there was a need for a new school system. With the chaotic and uncontrollable situation in the current system, many supporters have push forward the idea of a new system in a new city. From

In the video, “A Class Divided,” the video shows a teacher from Iowa named, Jane Elliot who wants to teach her students the importance of discrimination. During her experimentation, she starts off her lesson by asking questions such as, “What is brotherhood?” “What is discrimination?” and “How are we supposed to treat people who look different than us?” Elliot then proceeds to ask her class if they would like to know what it feels like to be discriminated. Her emphasis in this experiment is to show how it felt to be discriminated. Elliot was inspired to do this experiment when she was listening to the television the night after they assassinated Martin Luther king. She kept hearing the news reporter say things like: “who will look after your people?” and “How will your people manage?” After this she knew she had to explain to her class in a way they will understand. Elliot decided to divide the class into two categories: the brown eyed kids and the blue eyed kids. At first the blue eyed kids were the superior race while, the brown eyed kids were the lower race. Being the inferior race meant that they had to wear blue collars around their necks in order to differentiate their eye color. Of course, the brown eyed kids had restrictions. They could not play in the playground, they could not befriend nor socialize with the blue eyed kids, and etc. The kids had a chance to walk in

The film, “A Class Divided”, was a film about how discrimination can affect the way we think and act towards people who are not the same as us. The film centers around Jane Elliot and her former 3rd grade class who are all grown up. The film showed the blue-eyed/brown-eyed experiment that Elliot had created to teach her class about discrimination and the lasting, life-long affects the experiment had on former 3rd grade class. The film also presents the blue-eyed/brown-eyed experiment on a group of adults who work in a prison with minorities and how the experiment affected them.

In the article, “ Blue eyes, brown eyes: What Jane Elliott’s famous exercise says about race 50 years on” Karina Bland talks about Jane Elliott’s steps toward ending racial discrimination amongst people. According to Bland one of Elliotts ways was, “She divided the children [in her class], who were all white, by eye color, and then she told the children that people with brown eyes were smarter, faster, and better than those with blue eyes.” Bland later stated that, “ The change was instant, Elliott said. The children with brown eyes were suddenly more confident - and condescending. They hurled nasty insults at the blue-eyed kids.”

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.

Throughout this class, various discussions and blogs have been used to analyze the different elements of films such as theme, cinematic techniques and genre. It is time to bring all of these separate elements together in the analysis of one specific film, according to class text, “analyzing levels of meaning below the surface story can greatly enhance enjoyment as well as understanding of a film” (Goodykoontz & Jacobs, 2014. p. 10.03). There are several different approaches to film analysis including formalist, auteurist, and generic or any combination thereof. Utilizing a genre theory lens, the 1956 film The Searchers will be analyzed addressing contextual information, story/plot, aesthetic choices, social/personal impact and how these areas come together to develop the film.

Many live attempting to decipher the riddle of life. What is life? What is the purpose? What makes? Even though we only seek happiness why can’t we ever seem to achieve it? When we do reach happiness why can’t we seem to grasp it and hold it for more than the few short hours that pass like seconds? The question we must answer first is “What makes happiness, true?”