Even though some of the children said yes, Elliott pushed back. ABC broadcast a documentary about her work. Although actions from the experiment show lack of respect towards subjects it has widely been recognized in the study of human behavior in social and cultural context. Watch it online right now! Before proceeding with the test, she began with random questions to fully understand the children's perception of Negroes. And the exercise continued in a similar fashion to how it was executed the day before. At this point you may wish to tell the pupils that you are conducting an "experiment" to look at what prejudice is. Disclaimer: SpeedyPaper.com is a custom writing service that provides online on-demand writing work for assistance purposes. Regardless of age, gender, race, ethnicity or socioeconomic status, decision making in psychology should protect individual rights and welfare to eliminate potential biases. They embraced the experiments reductive message, as well as its promised potential, thereby keeping the implausible rationale of Elliotts crusade alive and well for decades, however flawed and racist it really was. Retrieved from https://speedypaper.com/essays/ethical-concerns-in-jane-elliots-experiment, Free essays can be submitted by anyone, so we do not vouch for their quality. Still, Elliott said the last few years have brought out America's worst racist tendencies. . Blue-eyed people. Cookie Policy She compromised the APA's Code of Conduct and Ethical Standard because she lied, after that she recanted the lies and kept as they were justified because of her greater purpose. Brown-eyed people, she told the students, are smarter, more civilized and better than blue-eyed people. SpeedyPaper website, please click below to request its removal: Liked this essay sample but need an original one? Mental Floss, 4. "Black children grow up accustomed to such behavior, but white children, there's no way they could possibly understand it. In the early morning, dew and fog cover the acres of gently swaying stalks that surround Riceville the way water surrounds an island. She has appeared on the "Oprah Winfrey Show" five times. ", Jane shielded her eyes from the morning sun. The nearest traffic light is 20 miles away. Days after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. ", Elliott defends her work as a mother defends her child. Jane Elliot and the Blue-Eyed Children Experiment. The test also included violation of consent in which participation of the children was made involuntarily. Elliot's approach to the experiment involved creativity in which the pupils' age and ability to comprehend discrimination was taken into account. 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 Blue Eyes Brown Eyes exercise continues to be relevant. Melanin, she said, is what causes intelligence. "If this ugly change, if this negative change can happen this quickly, why can't positive change happen that quickly? "Blue-eyed people sit around and do nothing. The children said yes, and the exercise began. How can put those little children through that exercise for a day? And they seem unable to relate the sympathy that theyre feeling for these little white children for a day to what happens to children of color in this society for a lifetime or to the fact that they are doing this to children based on skin color every day. 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. Elliott pulled out green construction paper armbands and asked each of the blue . PracticalPie.com is a participant in the Amazon Associates Program. If you have ever heard of the self-fulfilling prophecy, these results may not come as a surprise. The documentary has become a popular teaching tool among teachers, business owners, and even employees at correctional facilities. They are cleaner than blue-eyed people. She asked them if they would like to experience what it felt like to be in a person of colors shoes. The second day, Elliott reversed the groups. She was hesitant to enroll in Elliotts workshop but was told that if she wanted to succeed as a manager, shed have to attend. "They are cleaner and they are smarter.". They felt superior and had the support of the authority figure (the teacher). Jane Elliott's brown eye/blue eye experiment starts at 03:10 of A Class Divided. It didnt take long for the children to turn on each other. New York: Elsevier Science. She told the kids that blue-eyed children weren't as good as brown-eyed or green-eyed ones. She was 10 before the farmhouse had running water and electricity. If this arbitrary division that Elliott enforced for a few hours created so many problems in this classroom, whats happening on a larger scale? "It's Riceville 30 years ago. ISBN 9780520382268. The Associated Press followed up, quoting Elliott as saying she was "dumbfounded" by the exercise's effectiveness. This time, the participants werent a bunch of elementary school children they were young adults. That got the other teachers angry. Some residents were furious. I felt mad. The fourth of five children, Elliott was born on her family's farm in Riceville in 1933, and was delivered by her Irish-American father himself. But when she discovered that I was asking pointed questions of scores of her former students, as well as others subjected to the experiment, she made an about-face and said she no longer would cooperate with me. Jane Elliott, one of the most controversial figures in U.S. education and diversity training, began her journey to international acclaim in Riceville, Iowa. Throughout the day, Elliott continued to give the children with blue eyes special treatment. School ought to be about developing character, but most teachers won't touch that with a ten-foot pole.". The corn grows so fast in northern Iowafrom seedling to seven-foot-high stalk in 12 weeksthat it crackles. The latter felt discriminated against by the other brown-eyed children. Withdrawn brown-eyed kids were suddenly outgoing, some beaming with the widest smiles she had ever seen on them. The exercise is "an inoculation against racism," she says. She attended a oneroom rural schoolhouse.Today, at 72, Elliott, who has short white hair, a penetrating gaze and no-nonsense demeanor, shows no signs of slowing. They were forced to sit on the back rows and had to use a . Given the ethical concerns, will you still rely on a quasi-experimental research design as a source of information in counselling psychology? Not only were they fewer in numbers, but the authority figure was against them. To begin with, Jane Elliot's experiment involved deception in which the children were made in believing that change in eye color influence intelligence. In the documentary, she said that she conducted the original blue-eyes, brown-eyes experiment to make a positive change. The blue-eyed girl apologized. Elliott rattled off the rules for the day, saying blue-eyed kids had to use paper cups if they drank from the water fountain. Elliott began the exercise by dividing her students by eye color. one girl asked. The Brown Eyed / Blue Eyed Experiment. ", "I've never forgotten the exercise," Whisenhunt volunteered. Locals say that drivers don't signal when they turn because everyone knows where everyone else is going. Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images But Elliotts experiment had a more sinister impact. Then a picture was taken to remember. She said she watched and was horrified at what she saw. Additionally, the brown-eyed students got to sit in the front of the class, while the blue-eyed kids . Mental Sandboxes and Their Usefulness in Today's World, The Law of Reversed Effort: When Taking Action Isn't the Best Option. The children were not aware of the experiment, and therefore they could not give their permission of involvement. When the blue-eyed group saw that the brown-eyed group was going to be seated first, some became upset. She had never met me, and she accused me in front of everyone of using my sexuality to get ahead.. ", Walt Gabelmann, 83, was Riceville's mayor for 18 years beginning in 1966. 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. Elliott turned into Americas mother of diversity training. That spring morning 37 years ago, the blue-eyed children were set apart from the children with brown or green eyes. That says very plainly that you know whats happening, you know you dont want it for you. To this day, at the age of 86, Jane Elliott continues this work. "Hey, Mrs. Elliott," Steven yelled as he slung his books on his desk. 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. Order original essays online. He printed them under the headline "How Discrimination Feels." The May 25 killing of George Floyd set off weeks of nationwide protests over the police abuse and racism against black people, plunging the U.S. into a reckoning of racial inequality. She traveled to corporations, banks, prisons, schools and military bases. 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. The kids in the bottom group became timider and kept to themselves. For many, the experiment went horribly awry. Questioning authority The mainstream media were complicit in advancing such a simplistic narrative. Blue Eyes vs. Brown Eyes Experiment. In this scenario, students are told brown-eyed people . It is sometimes cited as a landmark of social science. APA principles acknowledge that individuals rights to privacy, self-determination, and confidentiality is paramount to all psychological activities. Theyd have to use paper cups if they drank from the water fountain. Elliott created the blue-eyes/brown-eyes classroom exercise in 1968 to teach students about racism. Terms of Use The experiment known as Blue Eyes Brown Eyes experiment is regarded as an eye-opening way for children to learn about racism and discrimination. 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. However, both Mary and Zeke have brown eyes. She nodded. In the 60th year beyond Brown vs. Board of Education, Frontline is making available their classic 1985 documentary, " A Class Divided ," about the experiment and what happened later. Keep me from judging a man until I have walked a mile in his moccasins. This is a Sioux saying. Yes, that day was tough. Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct. 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. Jane Elliott at Riceville, Iowa, Elementary School in 1968. This bibliography was generated on Cite This For Me on Monday, March 7, 2016. See Page 1. One even wrote a lipstick message with racial slurs. "She got carried away by this possession she developed over human beings. Why'd they shoot that King?" Thats how it started, and thats how it went all day long. One example that has been in place for many years is the blue-eyed/brown-eyed experiment. Practical Psychology began as a collection of study material for psychology students in 2016, created by a student in the field. SYNOPSIS OF BLUE EYED. I have brown eyes. 5/21/2020 Topic: Module 2 Discussion: This was intentional. In this article, we'll explain what happened during the experiment and discuss its consequences. You can start from that point in Activity 2, or you can play the video from the beginning (00:00) so that your students can see civil rights era footage following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., as well as Elliott's students returning to Iowa . I was stunned. In 2001, Jane Elliott recordedThe Angry Eye,in which she revised and updated her experiment. You give them something nice and they just wreck it." A smart blue-eyed girl who had never had problems with multiplication tables started making mistakes. 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. Shermer and Bloom discuss: "Blue Eyes, Brown Eyes" Jane Elliott famous racism experiment reactions to it (in the classroom, locally, nationally, internationally) whether the "experiment" was really more of a demonstration public interest, from Johnny Carson to Oprah Winfrey the questionable ethics of the experiment what it reveals about tribalism, racism . Elliott was even brought on The Tonight Show to talk about her experiences. In explaining the experiment rules to the brown-eyed contestants, she addresses the people of color in the room. 980 Words. Though Jane's actions were justifiable because she was not a psychologist, her experiment cannot be replicated in the present society. 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 video . The study also violates the American Principles of Psychologist codes of conduct making its replication or further investigation unethical. The basic idea was to separate the class into two halves - those with blue eyes and those with brown. 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. 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. She pointed out flaws in a student and associated it with . "No person of any age [was] going to leave my presence with those attitudes unchallenged," Elliott said. All rights reserved. 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. (2010). The brown-eyed students also exercised a certain level of power over the blue-eyed students when they put the armbands on them. The Blue Eye/Brown Eye was an experiment performed by Jane Elliot in 1968 on the day after Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. 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 . The act of treating students differently was obviously a metaphor for the social decisions made on a larger level. She appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show five times. 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. If you are the original author of this essay and no longer wish to have it published on the In the case of any doubt, it's best to consult a trusted specialist. Introduction. You've still got that same sweet smile. These differences lead to war and hate. Their response is to create dichotomies of inferiority and superiority. 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. . Elliott had hoped that this experiment would help the children to better understand the feelings of discrimination that certain groups feel on a daily basis, but what she didn . "You better apologize to us for getting in our way because we're better than you are," one of the brownies said. 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. The day after Martin Luther King, Jr. was killed, Jane Elliott, a teacher in a small, all-white Iowa town, divided her third-grade class into blue-eyed and brown-eyed groups and gave them a daring . (Byrnes & Kiger, 1992). Elliott's friends and family say she's tenacious, and has always had a reformer's zeal. She also made the brown-eyed students put construction paper armbands on the blue-eyed students. Elliott continues, "Just when you think that the fertile soil can sprout no more, another season comes round, and you see another year of bountiful crops, tall and straight. Elliotts coworkers avoided her after her appearance on The Tonight Show. 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. Elliott? I felt mad. Consequently, the brown-eyed children started using blue-eyes as an insult. Scores of others did participate. These initial criticisms didnt stop Elliott. Thus, the dominant group, supported by the authorities, will always have the upper hand. Hire a professional with VAST experience! Once indoors, the brown-eyed group was then treated to coffee and doughnuts, while the blue-eyed group could only stand around and wait. Could you?". Jane Elliott has done a lot of reflection about the consequences of the minimal group experiment. The fact that children are easy to manipulate into acting in a particular manner explains Jane's choice of sample. How can we teach kids to be more like him? Sorry, but it's not possible to copy the text due to security reasons. The blue eyes brown eyes study was a study on group prejudice and discrimination conducted by Jane Elliot. On the first day of the two-day experiment, Elliott told the . She believed that experience was the only way her students could understand how it felt like to be discriminated. The test violated the principle of respect for people's rights and dignity. The musical is about romance, but it integrates issues of race and discrimination (Norris, 2014), and the song is about how discrimination is taught carefully, in long term. 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. That's what it feels like when you're discriminated against.". 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). 1. Blue-eyed children got five extra minutes of recess. Problems with this research were that it went against a lot of ethical issues. Delivery in 6+ hours! Within a few hours of starting the exercise, Elliott noticed big differences in the childrens behavior and how they treated each other. The students initially involved wished that everyone could participate in an exercise like this. . The contents of Exploring Your Mind are for informational and educational purposes only. Elliott split her students into two groups, based on eye color. After recess that day, the brown-eyed children complained that they were . At the time, she was a third-grade . That same year, Elliott was invited to the White House Conference on Children and Youth to conduct an exercise on adult educators. Jane Elliott, a teacher and anti-racism activist, performed a direct experiment with the students in her classroom. 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." . The next day when the tables were turned, "I felt like quitting school. Jane would get invited to go to Timbuktu to give a speech. Unfortunately, you cant copy samples. Many of them noted that when they hear prejudice and discrimination from others, they wish they could whip out those collars and give them the experience they had as third graders. people are better than blue-eyed people. One group consisted pupils with brown eye while the other group consisted of those with blue eyes. 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? "We want to see Room No. The following are some of her most insightful quotes on these issues. She was a standing-room-only speaker at hundreds of colleges and universities. "Eye color, hair color and skin color are caused by a chemical," Elliott went on, writing MELANIN on the blackboard. Essay Sample: Ethical Concerns in Jane Elliot's Experiment. More than 50 years after her famous exercise, Elliott is still fighting. Decent Essays. Stephen G. Bloom does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment. Brian, the Elliotts' oldest son, got beaten up at school, and Jane called the ringleader's, mother. Initial Reaction to the Blue Eyes Brown Eyes Exercise. "Not one of them reprimanded her for that or even corrected her. Two students even got into a physical altercation. In 2001, she was still trying to make a change. ", That spring morning 37 years ago, the blue-eyed children were set apart from the children with brown or green eyes. About Press Copyright Contact us Creators Advertise Developers Terms Privacy Policy & Safety How YouTube works Test new features NFL Sunday Ticket Press Copyright .