The blue-eyed participants faced discrimination for two and a half hours. The children said yes, and the exercise began. Classroom experiment. You have the right color eyes!. One key assumption is that the sample population represents an actual society. It's cruel to white children and will cause them great psychological damage. 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. Amitai Etzioni, a sociologist at George WashingtonUniversity, says the exercise helps develop character and empathy. Need an original essay on Essay Sample: Ethical Concerns in Jane Elliot's Experiment? And you'll always have it. On the second day, the roles were reversed, and those with brown eyes received special treatment, and the blue-eyed children were made to feel inferior (A Class, 2003). Would you like to get this essay by email? The Blue Eyes Brown Eyes exercise continues to be relevant. Jane Elliott | Psychology Wiki | Fandom One example that has been in place for many years is the blue-eyed/brown-eyed experiment. 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 . Group Prejudice | Jane Elliott's Brown Eyes vs. Blue Eyes Experiment The blue-eyed students, when told they were superior and offered privileges such as extra recess time, changed their behavior dramatically and their attitudes toward the children with brown eyes. . She told them brown-eyed . "Mention two wordsJane Elliottand you get a flood of emotions from people," says Jim Cross, the Riceville Recorder's editor these days. Elliott was even brought on The Tonight Show to talk about her experiences. 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. How do you think the world would change if everyone experienced the perils and setbacks that come with prejudice and discrimination? Through this study, Elliot demonstrated how easy it is for prejudice and discrimination to emerge from just a simple message that people with one eye color are superior to people with another eye color. At first, she cooperated with me. Elliot's approach to the experiment involved creativity in which the pupils' age and ability to comprehend discrimination was taken into account. "They shot that King yesterday. All rights reserved. The Brown Eyed / Blue Eyed Experiment - 980 Words | Bartleby To understand racism, kids must empathise with its impact and 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. If you are the original author of this essay and no longer wish to have it published on the "I don't think this community was ready for what she did," he said. In the early morning, dew and fog cover the acres of gently swaying stalks that surround Riceville the way water surrounds an island. Professor of Journalism, University of Iowa. Charity is humiliating because its exercised vertically and from above; solidarity is horizontal and implies mutual respect.. With this experiment she wanted to let the blue-eyed people (white people) feel how it is to be in low power position. The fact that children are easy to manipulate into acting in a particular manner explains Jane's choice of sample. In 1970, she demonstrated it for educators at a White House Conference on Children and Youth. In the wake of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., Elliott developed a simple exercise that explored the nature of racism and prejudice.. Elliott's method for exploring racism in the context of an all-white classroom consisted of dividing her students into two groups on the basis of eye color, blue or brown (those with other eye colors were assigned to the group . On the first day, she told the children with blue eyes they were superior: smarter and more well-behaved than the children with brown eyes. Three sections were selected to be administered the simulation . Elliott shared the essays with her mother, who showed them to the editor of the weekly Riceville Recorder. A columnist at a Denver newspaper called it "evil. When the exercise ended, some of the kids hugged, some cried. Subsequent research designed to gauge the efficacy of Elliotts attempt at reducing prejudice showed that many participants were shocked by the experiment, but it did nothing to address or explain the root causes of racism. Knowing that her experiment would have consequences, Jane remained committed to her course. They are steeped in centuries of economic deprivation and cultural appropriation. Elliot wanted to show that the same thing happens in real life with brown eyed people (minority). She has . Or alternatively you may decide to keep them in ignorance of what is happening. And the exercise continued in a similar fashion to how it was executed the day before. Typical of their responses was that of Debbie Hughes, who reported that "the people in Mrs. Elliott's room who had brown eyes got to discriminate against the people who had blue eyes. Blue Eyed vs Brown Eyed Experiment by Bree Elliott - Prezi The more melanin, the darker the person's eyesand the smarter the person. "Blue-eyed people sit around and do nothing. "They can't forget me," she said, "and because of who they are, they can't forgive me. These differences lead to war and hate. The first day of the experiment she convinced the children that blue-eyed people were smarter, better and would have more priorities. Danko, M. (2013). A second look at the blue-eyes, brown-eyes experiment that taught third The goal of the minimal group paradigm is to establish subjective differences and create a climate of favoritism. ", Dean Weaver, 70, superintendent of Riceville schools from 1972 to 1979, said, "She'd just go ahead and do things. ERIC - ED300491 - Ethical and Pedagogical Issues in the Use of The selection was based on the color of the eye for each group. Blue eyes, brown eyes: What Jane Elliott's famous experiment says about race 50 years on. In present society, psychological experiments are guided by honesty, truthfulness, and accuracy. Jane Elliot's experiment involves cheating and intentional misinterpretation of facts. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. Jane Elliott at Riceville, Iowa, Elementary School in 1968. Solve your problem differently! They don't replace the diagnosis, advice, or treatment of a professional. Some people feel we can't move on when you have her out there hawking her 30-year-old experiment. Blue Eye/Brown Eye is an experiment performed by Jane Elliot in 1968 on the day after Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated to demonstrate what prejudice was to her third grade class. 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. Blue-eyed students slumped in their chairs, as though . She has appeared on the "Oprah Winfrey Show" five times. I have brown eyes. They are cleaner than blue-eyed people. They didnt need to engage with a single Black person. Then tell them that . She has spoken at more than 350 colleges and universities. 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? Her class, "We give our children shots to inoculate them against polio and smallpox, to protect them against the realities in the future. Exercise or Experiment-- An Account of Jane Elliott's Tenacity: A 1. When she separated the class by eye color and announced that blue-eyed children were superior, Paul Bodensteiner objected at every turn. New York: Elsevier Science. 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. If brown-eyed children made a mistake, Elliott would call out the mistake and attribute it to the students brown eyes. The blue-eyed girl apologized. Elliott was shocked by the results and decided to switch the roles the following day. PPT The Ethics of Using Human Participants - University of New Mexico It didnt take long for the children to turn on each other. Keep me from judging a man until I have walked a mile in his moccasins. This is a Sioux saying. "Things are changing, and they're going to change rapidly if we're very, very fortunate," she said. hide caption. Even though the response to the Blue Eyes Brown Eyes exercise was initially negative, it made Jane Elliott a leading figure in diversity training. Stripping away the veneer of the experiment, what was left had nothing to do with race. Mental Sandboxes and Their Usefulness in Today's World, The Law of Reversed Effort: When Taking Action Isn't the Best Option. The hate and discrimination that we see in adults have their origin in their upbringing. In fact, most of the initial response was negative. Jane Elliott is 84 years old, a tiny woman with white hair, wire-rim glasses and little patience. See Page 1. However, both Mary and Zeke have brown eyes. The assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968 prompted educator Jane Elliott to create the now-famous "blue eyes/brown eyes exercise ." As a school teacher in the small town of Riceville, Iowa, Elliott first conducted the anti-racism experiment on her all-white third-grade classroom, the day after the civil rights leader was killed. The corn grows so fast in northern Iowafrom seedling to seven-foot-high stalk in 12 weeksthat it crackles. It is sometimes cited as a landmark of social science. And they are smarter than blue-eyed people." The brown-eyed children got to sit in the front of the room, to go to lunch first, and to have more time at recess. One group consisted pupils with brown eye while the other group consisted of those with blue eyes. Sadly, these conversations are still relevant today. Some residents were furious. She then told them that the children with blue eyes were inherently inferior to the children with brown . Ms. Elliott, now 87, said she started teaching about racism on April 5, 1968 the day after the Rev. Brown Eyes or Blue: A Social Experiment - Soapboxie PDF Sociology. PUB DATE I think it can. Privacy Statement Delivery in 6+ hours! 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. School ought to be about developing character, but most teachers won't touch that with a ten-foot pole.". Ethical Experiments - AP Psychology-NWHS This way, she successfully created two distinct groups in her classroom: The consequences of the minimal group became evident very quickly. 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. Traditionally, society has always treated leadership as a male issue. Order from one of our vetted writers instead. Jane Elliott, a teacher and anti-racism activist, performed a direct experiment with the students in her classroom. Perhaps because the outcome seemed so optimistic and comforting, coverage of Elliott and the experiments alleged curative powers cropped up everywhere. 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. Blue-eyed people would get 5 extra minutes on the playground and blue-eyed people could not talk to brown-eyed people. Normally, blue-eyes isnt an insult. Ethical & Pedagogical Issues 2. The blue eyes and brown eyes experiment According to supporters of Elliott's approach, the goal is to reach people's sense of empathy and morality. We use them to divide and destroy people., White peoples number one freedom, in the United States of America, is the freedom to be totally ignorant of those who are other than white. She then made the blue-eyed students believe that they were better and smarter than their counterparts. 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. The anti-racism sessions Elliott led were intense. I often think about Paul Bodensteiner. Thus, the dominant group, supported by the authorities, will always have the upper hand. "We are repeating the blue-eyed/brown-eyed exercise on a daily basis.". 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. At this point you may wish to tell the pupils that you are conducting an "experiment" to look at what prejudice is. That same year, Elliott was invited to the White House Conference on Children and Youth to conduct an exercise on adult educators. ", Others have praised Elliott's exercise. Additionally, the brown-eyed students got to sit in the front of the class, while the blue-eyed kids . Still, Elliott said the last few years have brought out America's worst racist tendencies. A Teacher's Report on 'a Class Divided' a Pbs Film: Teaching Articles and opinions on happiness, fear and other aspects of human psychology. 2012 2023 . She told her students that she had made a mistake the previous day and that brown-eyed students . Outside, rows of corn stretched to the horizon. Lasting Impact of Blue Eyes Brown Eyes Experiment, Words are the most powerful weapon devised by humankind. SYNOPSIS OF BLUE EYED. Blue-eyed children got five extra minutes of recess. The next day, Elliott reversed the roles. One of the blue eyed even went to hit a brown eyed just for the fact that he was brown eyed. "If this ugly change, if this negative change can happen this quickly, why can't positive change happen that quickly? With a couple of basic and arbitrary examples, Elliott made the case that brown-eyed people were better. It makes you proud. "Black children grow up accustomed to such behavior, but white children, there's no way they could possibly understand it. 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. When Differences Matter | Facing History and Ourselves "Malinda? On the second day of the experiment, Elliott switched the childrens roles. She asks them if they have ever faced treatment like the type that blue-eyed people would experience in the following two and a half hours. Elliott split her students into two groups, based on eye color. Introduction. Not everyone appreciated Elliotts exercise. Blue Eye / Brown Eye experiment - Everything2.com The kids in the bottom group became timider and kept to themselves. . Was The Blue Eyes Brown Eyes Experiment Ethical? Jane Elliot: Blue Eyes, Brown Eyes - UKEssays.com Withdrawn brown-eyed kids were suddenly outgoing, some beaming with the widest smiles she had ever seen on them. When she went downtown to do errands, she heard whispers. Its goal was to demonstrate what prejudice was to her third grade class. And Im only doing this as an exercise that every child knows is an exercise and every child knows is going to end at the end of the day., We learn to be racist, therefore we can learn not to be racist. Brown-eyed people. "It's Riceville 30 years ago. Did they know what it was like to be discriminated against? "I know who she is. Immediately after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., Professor Jane Elliott used the minimal group paradigm to perform an experiment that would teach her students about race discrimination. Would you? Not only were they fewer in numbers, but the authority figure was against them. Answer (1 of 3): My guess is that is doesn't really represent racism but classism. Jane Elliot's 'The Blue Eyes and Brown Eyes Experiment' was unethical in that she created a segregated environment in a third grade classroom. Jane Elliot's Experiment - 879 Words | Bartleby "I think third grade was too young for what she did. On the other hand, privileged members of the community are treated as in-groups which earn them undue respect and capacity to abuse the less advantaged. Its not true and its not fair no matter what you say! he responded. Folks leave their cars unlocked, keys in the ignition. In 1968 after Martin Luther King was assassinated the United States was in turmoil. More than 50 years after her famous exercise, Elliott is still fighting. people are better than blue-eyed people. ", Walt Gabelmann, 83, was Riceville's mayor for 18 years beginning in 1966. That's what it feels like when you're discriminated against.". ", 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?". Throughout the investigation, the classroom represented a real-life scenario in which the unprivileged and minority members of the society are treated as out-groups making them susceptible to discrimination. Elliott said that blue-eyed people were less intelligent and less clean. She slumped. Tears formed in the corners of Elliott's eyes. "I understand this is the first time you've flown?" "You have to put the exercise in the context of the rest of the year. The people and cultures already present in a place often feel threatened by new immigrants. The subjects were 164 students enrolled in eight sections of an introductory elementary education course at a state university. Why was the Blue Eyes and Brown Eyes Experiment considered unethical in psychology? Today, increased migration means more opportunities for people from different backgrounds to interact with each other, which is often a source of conflict. One scholar asserts that it is "Orwellian" and teaches whites "self-contempt." The exercise is "an inoculation against racism," she says. "Would you like to come on the show?" SpeedyPaper.com 2023 All rights reserved. In this scenario, students are told brown-eyed people . "This here is Jane Elliott," I said. Given the long-term results of the experiment, the controversial study could not have taken place in today's society despite its significant insights on matters racism. But not Elliott. She has led training sessions at General Electric, Exxon, AT&T, IBM and other corporations, and has lectured to the IRS, the U.S. Navy, the U.S. Department of Education and the Postal Service. Grey eyes are also a rare eye color. Evaluation of Jane Elliott's "Blue-Eyed Brown-Eyes" "We'll just be a couple of minutes. She was hesitant to enroll in Elliotts workshop but was told that if she wanted to succeed as a manager, shed have to attend. "The browneyed people are the better people in this room," Elliott began. ", For years scholars have evaluated Elliott's exercise, seeking to determine if it reduces racial prejudice in participants or poses a psychological risk to them. Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes: Jane Elliott's controversial classroom experiment She and her husband, Darald Elliott, then a grocer, have four children, and they, too, felt a backlash. Elliott? I felt mad. 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 experiment to demonstrate . A Teacher Held a Famous Racism Exercise in 1968. She's Still at It. She appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show five times. Theyd have to use paper cups if they drank from the water fountain. The study also violates the American Principles of Psychologist codes of conduct making its replication or further investigation unethical. The students started to internalize, and accept, the characteristics they'd been arbitrarily assigned based on the color of their eyes. As a school teacher in the small town of Riceville, Iowa, Elliott first conducted the anti-racism experiment on her all-white third-grade classroom, the day after the civil rights leader was killed. He printed them under the headline "How Discrimination Feels." Melanin, she said, is what causes intelligence. But in reality, I found in researching for my book Blue Eyes, Brown Eyes that the experiment was a sadistic exhibition of power and authority levers controlled by Elliott. Sorry, but it's not possible to copy the text due to security reasons. 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. To back up my statement Bloom (2005) says Jane Elliott's blue-eyes brown-eyes exercise encouraged children to mistrust authority figures. She was 10 before the farmhouse had running water and electricity. Decent Essays. Elliott, who is white, separated the students into two groupsthose with blue eyes and those with brown eyes. PracticalPsychology. Thousands of educators across the United States folded the experiment into their curriculums. A difference as simple as eye color, defined and established by the authority figure, created a rift between the students. To Kill A Mockingbird Quotes - 1072 Words | Internet Public Library After the exercise white college students in . The three outcomes are: (1) virtually all of the subjects reported that the experience was Regardless of age, gender, race, ethnicity or socioeconomic status, decision making in psychology should protect individual rights and welfare to eliminate potential biases. 4 Pages. (2010). One caller complained that white children would not be able to handle . The documentary has become a popular teaching tool among teachers, business owners, and even employees at correctional facilities. Order original essays online. "They are cleaner and they are smarter.". When my grandchildren are old enough, I'd give anything if you'd try the exercise out on them. With over 2 million YouTube subscribers, over 500 articles, and an annual reach of almost 12 million students, it has become one of the most popular sources of psychological information. 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. The nonstop parade of sickening events such as the murder of George Floyd surely is not going to be abated by a quickie experiment led by a white person for the alleged benefit of other whites as was the case with the blue-eyed, brown eyed experiment. If you have ever heard of the self-fulfilling prophecy, these results may not come as a surprise. Jane Elliott, a teacher and anti-racism activist, performed a direct experiment with the students in her classroom. And what she did caused an uproar. Blue Eyes, Brown Eyes: A Cautionary Tale of Race and Brutality It was typical of Elliott's blunt styleno "Good morning," no small talk. "Well, what do you expect from him, Mrs. Elliott," a brown-eyed student said as a blue-eyed student got an arithmetic problem wrong. The students who had blue eyes were told that they were better and smarter than their inferior brown-eyed peers. (In later versions of the exercise, children in the inferior group were given collars to wear.). That got the other teachers angry. Could you?". The students initially involved wished that everyone could participate in an exercise like this. 296. Stephen Bloom on Jane Elliott's Famous Experiment on Race and 4. Elliott championed the experiment as an inoculation against racism., [The Conversations Politics + Society editors pick need-to-know stories. 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." Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct. I was stunned. The Blue Eyes and Brown Eyes Experiment - Studocu The textbook publisher McGraw-Hill has listed her on a timeline of key educators, along with Confucius, Plato, Aristotle, Horace Mann, Booker T. Washington, Maria Montessori and 23 others. The Hangout Bar & Grill, the Riceville Pharmacy and ATouch of Dutch, a restaurant owned by Mennonites, line Main Street. 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? ", Absolutely not. Questioning authority The mainstream media were complicit in advancing such a simplistic narrative. But Paul, one of eight siblings and the son of a dairy farmer, didnt buy Elliotts mollification. "That you, Ms. Ethical Principles of Psychologists & Code of Conduct - StudyMode Children often fight, argue, and sometimes hit each other, but this time they were motivated by eye color. The Anti-Racism Exercise That Taught Kids to Be Racist - Gizmodo I felt like quitting school. Weve been here before, with unsettling and disturbing results. All rights reserved. Is your time best spent reading someone elses essay? . She began this work in "Why?" The episode features with new footage of the students, who are now adults. She asked them if they would like to experience what it felt like to be in a person of colors shoes. If this arbitrary division that Elliott enforced for a few hours created so many problems in this classroom, whats happening on a larger scale? She gave all of the students simple spelling and math tests two weeks before the exercise, on the days of the exercise, and after the exercise. 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. Kors writes that Elliott's exercise taught "blood-guilt and self-contempt to whites," adding that "in her view, nothing has changed in America since the collapse of Reconstruction." 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. 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. Let's just move on. "He's a bluey! Society made them believe they were better than other people for arbitrary reasons such as skin color or gender. Did we fail the blue eyes/brown eyes experiment or did it fail us?