", The two hugged, and Whisenhunt had tears streaming down her cheeks. On the first day of the two-day experiment, Elliott told the . And what she did caused an uproar. This is the phrase that inspired one of the most well-known experiments in education. She was hesitant to enroll in Elliotts workshop but was told that if she wanted to succeed as a manager, shed have to attend. Right off the bat, she picked me out of the room and called me Barbie, Pasicznyk told me. One of the blue eyed even went to hit a brown eyed just for the fact that he was brown eyed. They needed not acknowledge their privilege or reflect on it. To back up my statement Bloom (2005) says Jane Elliott's blue-eyes brown-eyes exercise encouraged children to mistrust authority figures. This time, the participants werent a bunch of elementary school children they were young adults. "No person of any age [was] going to leave my presence with those attitudes unchallenged," Elliott said. Days after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., she pioneered an experiment to show her all-white class of third graders what it was like to be Black in America. The same experiment was also used a couple of years later with adults. I want to know why youre so willing to accept it or to allow it to happen for others., The first reaction I get from teachers, who see this film or from hearing, hear me discuss what I do say to me How can you do that to these little children? "They are cleaner and they are smarter.". 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. 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. 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. The tallest structure in Riceville is the water tower. American Psychological Association, 4. The latter felt discriminated against by the other brown-eyed children. More than 50 years after her famous exercise, Elliott is still fighting. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. Malinda Whisenhunt? 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. On the first day of the experiment, she declared the brown-eyed group superior and gave them extra privileges like seconds at lunch, extra recess time, and access to the new school playground. One key assumption is that the sample population represents an actual society. Is it even possible today? She learned that the responses from the children were negative and more generalized about what they thought about black people. Could you?". 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. Jane Elliott's Blue Eyes and Brown Eyes experiment was a turning point in social psychology. . According to role theorist Erving Goffman, emotional and cognitive experiences in such experiments as the Blue-Eyed versus the Brown-Eyed can have a long-term influence on behaviors and attitudes of participants especially when they are made to play the role of a stigmatized group (Biddle, 2013). Jane Elliot's 'The Blue Eyes and Brown Eyes Experiment' was unethical in that she created a segregated environment in a third grade classroom. While Jane Elliot's experiment makes several assumptions, it also has some ethical concerns. 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. The Hangout Bar & Grill, the Riceville Pharmacy and ATouch of Dutch, a restaurant owned by Mennonites, line Main Street. The students who had blue eyes were told that they were better and smarter than their inferior brown-eyed peers. . What Was The Blue Eyes Brown Eyes Experiment? Additionally, the brown-eyed students got to sit in the front of the class, while the blue-eyed kids . Jane Elliott at Riceville, Iowa, Elementary School in 1968. She told her students that she had made a mistake the previous day and that brown-eyed students . The Blue Eyes & Brown Eyes Exercise. 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. Within a few hours of starting the exercise, Elliott noticed big differences in the childrens behavior and how they treated each other. The exercise is "an inoculation against racism," she says. Elliott split her students into two groups, based on eye color. 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? The people and cultures already present in a place often feel threatened by new immigrants. Was The Blue Eyes Brown Eyes Experiment Ethical? In the early morning, dew and fog cover the acres of gently swaying stalks that surround Riceville the way water surrounds an island. ISBN 9780520382268. Mary and Zeke have three children, all of whom have blue eyes. ", Absolutely not. And the exercise continued in a similar fashion to how it was executed the day before. That spring morning 37 years ago, the blue-eyed children were set apart from the children with brown or green eyes. ", Others have praised Elliott's exercise. The brown-eyed students also exercised a certain level of power over the blue-eyed students when they put the armbands on them. "On an airplane, it is," Elliott said to appreciative laughter from the studio audience. They were also relevant in the 1950s when Elliott first began this work. The first thing that Jane Elliott did was divide the children into groups: those with blue eyes and those with brown eyes. Questioning authority The mainstream media were complicit in advancing such a simplistic narrative. Regardless of age, gender, race, ethnicity or socioeconomic status, decision making in psychology should protect individual rights and welfare to eliminate potential biases. Some residents were furious. Given the ethical concerns, will you still rely on a quasi-experimental research design as a source of information in counselling psychology? Why do researchers use correlational studies? "It would be hard to know, wouldn't it, unless we actually experienced discrimination ourselves. She wanted to show her students that an arbitrarily established difference could separate them and pit them against each other. Jane Elliott, an educator and anti-racism activist, first conducted her blue eyes/brown eyes exercise in her third-grade classroom in Iowa in 1968. Little children don't like uproar in the classroom. In 2001, Jane Elliott recordedThe Angry Eye,in which she revised and updated her experiment. Copyright 20102023, The Conversation Media Group Ltd. ", We stopped on Woodlawn Avenue, and a woman in her mid-40s approached us on the sidewalk. The Blue Eyes Brown Eyes exercise received national attention shortly after it ended. She then made the blue-eyed students believe that they were better and smarter than their counterparts. "That you, Ms. Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct. The blue-eyed participants faced discrimination for two and a half hours. The killing of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, was a seismic event, a turning point that compelled many Americans to do something and do it with urgency. The minimal group paradigm has shaped an entire methodology in social psychology. Proceeding with the experiment, Elliot divided the children into two groups each with nine pupils. It is quite powerful to watch. In the case of any doubt, it's best to consult a trusted specialist. I'm tired of hearing about her and her experiment and how everyone here is a racist. Students in the inferior groups were more likely to get a worse score. (Byrnes & Kiger, 1992). "You can see the look on their faces. PracticalPie.com is a participant in the Amazon Associates Program. Elliott said that blue-eyed people were less intelligent and less clean. The day after Kings murder, Jane Elliott, a white third-grade teacher in rural Riceville, Iowa, sought to make her students feel the brutality of racism. The smell of the crops and loam and topsoil and manure wafted though the open door. Jane Elliott, one of the most controversial figures in U.S. education and diversity training, began her journey to international acclaim in Riceville, Iowa. ", "I've never forgotten the exercise," Whisenhunt volunteered. She continued to conduct the exercise with her third graders. She told the kids that blue-eyed children weren't as good as brown-eyed or green-eyed ones. School ought to be about developing character, but most teachers won't touch that with a ten-foot pole.". Yet what Elliott did continues to stir controversy. Elliot wanted to show that the same thing happens in real life with brown eyed people (minority). The brown-eyed children felt suddenly that they were discriminated, while the blue eyed started seeing them as inferior. In the 60s, the United States was in the midst of a social race crisis. Therefore when she gave the blue eyed people more freedom than the brown eyed people, the blue eyed people started feeling like kings because they thought they were better, and were treated better. "Do blue-eyed people remember what they've been taught?" These initial criticisms didnt stop Elliott. Jane Elliott, a teacher and anti-racism activist, performed a direct experiment with the students in her classroom. The secretary on duty looked up, startled, as if she had just seen a ghost. The secretary said the south side of the building was closed, something about waxing the hallways. When you read about this experiment, its hard not to question labels. Mental Floss, 4. Ethics + Religion; Health; Politics + Society; . Jane Elliott is 84 years old, a tiny woman with white hair, wire-rim glasses and little patience. 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. Their 12-year-old daughter, Mary, came home from school one day in tears, sobbing that her sixth-grade classmates had surrounded her in the school hallway and taunted her by saying her mother would soon be sleeping with black men. 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 also assumed that none of the children had interacted with black people and that the only place they could have seen them is on television. The subjects were 164 students enrolled in eight sections of an introductory elementary education course at a state university. All rights reserved. In 1970, she demonstrated it for educators at a White House Conference on Children and Youth. She told them that people with brown eyes were better than people with blue eyes. 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. Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER! She gave the blue-eyed students an armband so other students could more easily identify them, and then she told her class that it was a scientific fact that people with brown eyes are smarter than those with blue because their bodies had more . 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 Is your time best spent reading someone elses essay? In 1970, a documentary about the exercise was released. 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. Jane Elliott on The Tonight Show on May 31, 1968. The students started to internalize, and accept, the characteristics they'd been arbitrarily assigned based on the color of their eyes. "Your son got what he deserved," the woman said. Delivery in 6+ hours! They didnt need to engage with a single Black person. At the time, she was a third-grade . She split the class in two categories, according to eye color, and told the children that one group was superior to the others. "Would you like to come on the show?" The children were not aware of the experiment, and therefore they could not give their permission of involvement. Disclaimer: SpeedyPaper.com is a custom writing service that provides online on-demand writing work for assistance purposes. This paradigm helps understand the current problems related to discrimination. In Zimbardo's experiment the conditions were much more controlled for later study but the r. Ms. Elliott, now 87, said she started teaching about racism on April 5, 1968 the day after the Rev. Unfortunately, you cant copy samples. The contents of Exploring Your Mind are for informational and educational purposes only. She asked the other teachers what they were doing to bring news of the King assassination into their classrooms. It seemed to evince that all white people had to do to learn about racism was restrain themselves from an impulse to engage in made-up cruelty. They all either smiled or laughed and nodded.". Keep me from judging a man until I have walked a mile in his moccasins. This is a Sioux saying. Classroom experiment. The second day, Elliott reversed the groups. I interviewed Julie Pasicznyk, who had been working for US West, a giant telecommunications company in Minneapolis. It has everything to do with power.. They are cleaner than blue-eyed people. 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. ", When I met Elliott in 2003, she hadn't been back to Riceville in 12 years. When Elliott first conducted the exercise in 1968, brown-eyed students were given special privileges. 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. Elliott asked her students to write about their experiences for the local newspaper. Written and verified by the psychologist Francisco Roballo. When Elliott conducted the exercise the next year, she added something extra to collect data. SpeedyPaper website, please click below to request its removal: Liked this essay sample but need an original one? Normally, blue-eyes isnt an insult. 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. Then a picture was taken to remember. Or alternatively you may decide to keep them in ignorance of what is happening. She began this work in The experiment known as Blue Eyes Brown Eyes experiment is regarded as an eye-opening way for children to learn about racism and discrimination. Before proceeding with the test, she began with random questions to fully understand the children's perception of Negroes. The results showed a . The idea was simple but profound. This meeting, along with other clips of the exercises impact on education, is featured in a PBS documentary called A Class Divided. ABC broadcast a documentary about her work. How do you think the world would change if everyone experienced the perils and setbacks that come with prejudice and discrimination? Jane Elliott was a third grade teacher in Riceville, Iowa when she developed the Blue Eyed/ Brown Eyed exercise to teach the effects of racism. She noticed that student relationships had changed; even if students were friendly outside of the exercise, they treated each other with arrogance or bossiness once the roles were assigned. Professor Jane Elliott performed a group experiment with her students that they would never forget. That got the other teachers angry. "It's the same thing over and over again," Cross says. But not Elliott. We have to let people find out how it feels to be on the receiving end of that which we dish out so readily.". Though Jane's actions were justifiable because she was not a psychologist, her experiment cannot be replicated in the present society. As the morning wore on, brown-eyed kids berated their blue-eyed classmates. She left teaching in the mid-80s to speak publicly about the experience and the impact of prejudice and racism. 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 . Grey eyes are also a rare eye color. Considering all the stereotypes and prejudices that exist, what kind of damage is being done? Blue-eyed students slumped in their chairs, as though . "Mention two wordsJane Elliottand you get a flood of emotions from people," says Jim Cross, the Riceville Recorder's editor these days. 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. Her class, She repeated the abuse with subsequent classes, and finally turned it into a fully commercial enterprise. Back in the classroom, Elliott's experiment had taken on a life of its own. ", Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images, now-famous "blue eyes/brown eyes exercise, 'I See These Conversations As Protective': Talking With Kids About Race. They also harassed them constantly. She had never met me, and she accused me in front of everyone of using my sexuality to get ahead.. The test violated the principle of respect for people's rights and dignity. She nodded. In this 1998 photograph, former Iowa teacher Jane Elliott, center, speaks with two Augsburg University . The following are some of her most insightful quotes on these issues. The Associated Press followed up, quoting Elliott as saying she was "dumbfounded" by the exercise's effectiveness. It makes you proud. It's cruel to white children and will cause them great psychological damage. While controversial, the Blue Eyes Brown Eyes exercise continues to be one of the most well-known and praised learning exercises in the world of educational psychology. . Hire a professional with VAST experience! Thus, the dominant group, supported by the authorities, will always have the upper hand.

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