Jane Elliott's Extent Summary

2. I think that the "brown-eyed/blue-eyed experiment" teaches us quite a few messages about racism. First off, the experiment is a proof that racism is simply a learned behavior. Children are very impressionable and usually learned about racism from their parents or peers at a very early age. As the video shows children are easily influenced and quite convincible. This proves that if our families taught us tolerance and acceptance from a young age, racism could be non-existent. Another fact that the video proves is that violence does not solve problems. As we see in the film, some of the boys hit the other boys to relieve their anger and

I believe the most important lessons that I could learn from this activity and that anyone could learn from this activity is that our mindset on racism can affect an entire race of people. For a good portion of my life I always just assumed, well if you’re in a minority you just have to accept the fact that life is harder, I never thought that something could be done to equalize the playing field. Although, Jane Elliott simply brings awareness to the problem of racism I believe a major aspect that she is fighting for is that we do in fact balance the manner in which we view and deal with people of different races.

For the last century there has been an abundance of false information being spread about the drug marijuana. Even in commercials on television, misleading facts about the drug have been presented to the audience. Some misconceptions about the drug include its potential to cause addiction, the damaging of brain cells, genetic damage, violent behavior, and damage to the immune system. These misconceptions, which have plagued a large percentage of the population into thinking that marijuana is a bad drug, have caused many set backs in the process of gradual legalization. (http://legalizationofmarijuana.com/ )

I think that to unlearn racism is something that only society as a whole can do. Only by society striving to solve not only the issue of racism but all isms will we move forward. I think Jane Elliot’s lessons work in that it gives the people who partake firsthand experience. However I don’t think it will ever solve the real issue overall. Society has to take responsibility in solving this issue. The most effective method I believe would be mandatory ostracizing similar to mandatory military service. It would give everyone personal experience in dealing with being the out group. However this would be rather harsh the best method would be something that deals with the issue of mindset confirmation bias and logic. If we could teach everyone about how their minds affect them and that everyone has their own issues would be the best

She wanted to give each student a clear understating how it feels on both sides of the pole. The students immediately turned on their friends, both days, when they were told one eye color group was better than the other. Eliot’s experiment showed how kids are taught racism and how it only took 24hours. She gave them pre-test and post-test that showed that on the days the students with the superior eye color were treated better they scored higher while the secondary students tested poorly. The results were the same for both days. According to Matthew E. Lemberger and Tamiko Lemberger-Truelove, authors of Using the Transcultural Adlerian Conceptualization and Therapy (TACT) Model to Depict the Influence of Race-Based Trauma (2016) they agree with Courtney Heldreth et al., University of California, Los Angeles (2016), on their point that racism causes medical and mental issues on person wellbeing. Lemberger and True-lover notes racism can be seen as traumatic for a person and their growth (Lemberger and True-love, 2016 p.3) whereas Courtney Heldreth et al. claims that postpartum depression symptoms were partially mediated by everyday experience with racism (Heldreth et al, 2016 p.3).

The white people are the ones with blue eyes and hence she ranked them lower to make them feel how in everyday lives African Americans feel when they are being labelled as lower to whites. She purposely switched their roles so that they would start having empathy for one another. This was the first-time blue eyed people were told that they are lower than brown eyed people. Since whites are always considered superior in society due to their color, they never got a chance to feel what it is like to be black and thus being labelled as a low status. The label of a low-status reduces the position of an individual in society and causes the society to actively limit their rights. This exercise was more effective in children than in adults. Some white people rejected Jane Elliot's idea that stated brown eyed people are superior than blue eyed people. Therefore, they misbehaved and questioned how she herself feels when told she is lower than the brown eyed

For the children, it was easy for them to believe anything they were taught because they were so young. Everything Mrs. Elliott told them they believed it and tried to live it in that moment. The blue-eyed children thought they were better and acted as if they were better. As the children stated, at the playground the blue-eyed children taunted the brown-eyed children all because of the labels that were taught to them. With the prison guards, it was a little harder for them to accept the things they were being taught. Whenever a blue-eyed person would get irritated with Jane Elliot, the would react in a defensive manner. In return, she used that against them saying that only blue-eyed people would act that way. I believe in the moment, for both groups the labels became true. Essentially, it demonstrates how something negative or positive can change a

I found the video and its materials to be very fascinating and ground-breaking. Teacher Jane Elliott thought of and carried out an exercise that left a permanent imprint on the mindset of the third graders. Her two-day experiment had the purpose of outlining a wide spectrum of challenges faced by folks of color in our country every day. She accomplished her lesson by asking the students whether they knew what it was like to live in a discriminatory society for someone who wasn't a part of the white supremacy. Little did they know how difficult and unjust their life would be with only one change - skin color.

The documentary “A Class Divided” is very eye opening into the world of racism and discrimination. The textbook Racial and Ethnic Groups defines racism as “a doctrine that one race is superior” and discrimination as “the denial of opportunities and equal rights to individuals and groups because of prejudice or for other arbitrary reasons” (Schaefer, pp. 14,41). The film’s set the tone for only being able to comprehend these concepts by truly “walking in their moccasins” as Ms. Elliot states. She was just an ordinary teacher that felt a mere discussion on these subjects just wasn’t enough

The article of Jane Elliots classroom was interesting in the fact that it shows how far socially accepted discrimination was in the late sixties. It also shares Elliot’s personal discomfort with the racial issues and how she could discuss them with not only her classroom, but also her father. In the article the classroom was discussed the question on how it would feel to be black, and the kids described it as being quite bluntly as unequal. The fact that the kids were automatically stating these things is astonishing, because it means these ideals must have been engrained into their minds as normal from an early age. The setting of this article being in a third grade classroom is an important aspect to think about because it emphasizes how

She pointed out flaws of the brown-eyed group and seemingly better traits of the blue-eyed group that made her statement seem correct leading to a generalized prejudice. Elliot then made rules for the groups, including that of recess time, drinking fountain privileges, lunch privileges, and segregation on the playground, giving advantages to the superior blue-eyed group and disadvantages to the inferior brown-eyed group which is a small-scale simulation of societal and governmental oppression of minorities. The kids laughed at the “other 's” misfortune, two kids of each group got into a fight, and hateful things were said by the “good” group while a look and feel of disappointment, shame, and exclusion was shown by the “bad” group. The roles were effectively reversed on the second day by using the same methods. The brown-eyed group were more than happy to give their collars to the blue-eyed group. The situated identities of the children were changed by Jane Elliot, an authority figure, by declaring that people of one eye color were better than people of another. She pointed out flaws and supposed shortcomings that made the one group seem inferior and the other group adopted this generalized view. This turned into discriminatory rules and acts in the class and on the playground.

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 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. Jane divided the class into 9 brown eyes and 9 blue eyes. The students who had blue eyes were told that they were better and smarter than their inferior brown-eyed peers. Brown-eyed students were given punishments and told that they could not interact with the blue-eyed students; this lead to pupils withdrawing, becoming confused, angry, and sad. The blue-eyed students were delighted in knowing that they were the superior group and took full advantage of it.

Due to the amount of negativity in the news towards marijuana, many people have not received proper information about the possibilities marijuana offers for medicinal use. A lot of the news that people read or watch tend to be tainted with biased opinions, and will rarely contain the full truth. “And over the past decade I, too, have grown tired of hearing scientists detail drug-related negative effects, always warning of the possible neurological and psychiatric dangers users face, while virtually ignoring recreational drugs’ potential medicinal or beneficial effects” (Hart, 2014). Dr. Carl L. Hart explains that people are always quick to give negative connotations about marijuana in general, without even bothering to recognize any positive effects it may have. If the news continues to show only one side of an argument, how are people supposed to see the whole

Many people believe that racism and discrimination are non-existent in today's society; however, that is simply wrong. A large percentage of the population does not accept other people simply because their appearance is different from themselves. The video clips played in class emphasize the generalizations and negative experiences that so many people, including myself suffer from on a daily basis. Most of the videos depict students treating or talking about others in negative and demeaning ways. In today's world, even at Bentley University, society unfairly judges people based on race, gender and sexual preference.