blue eyes brown eyes experiment ethical issues

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. However, both Mary and Zeke have brown eyes. According to the article is Jane Elliot's experiment to small degree effective. That same year, Elliott was invited to the White House Conference on Children and Youth to conduct an exercise on adult educators. 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 Elliott has done a lot of reflection about the consequences of the minimal group experiment. 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. One of the blue eyed even went to hit a brown eyed just for the fact that he was brown eyed. ", That spring morning 37 years ago, the blue-eyed children were set apart from the children with brown or green eyes. She asked them if they would like to experience what it felt like to be in a person of colors shoes. "We are repeating the blue-eyed/brown-eyed exercise on a daily basis.". Why'd they shoot that King?" In 2001, Jane Elliott recordedThe Angry Eye,in which she revised and updated her experiment. She described to her colleagues what she'd done, remarking how several of her slower kids with brown eyes had transformed themselves into confident leaders of the class. She began this work in Withdrawn brown-eyed kids were suddenly outgoing, some beaming with the widest smiles she had ever seen on them. 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. 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. "We'll just be a couple of minutes. In the 60s, the United States was in the midst of a social race crisis. 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. ", Others have praised Elliott's exercise. The brown-eyed children didnt want to play with the blue-eyes during recess. "Do blue-eyed people remember what they've been taught?" 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 secretary said the south side of the building was closed, something about waxing the hallways. 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. 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. That phrase came to my mind when I watched the video, A Class Divided, about education experiment to teach stereotyping, prejudice and discrimination (Frontline, 1985 . Elliott asked her students to write about their experiences for the local newspaper. 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. In this scenario, students are told brown-eyed people . Things even got violent at recess. One caller complained that white children would not be able to handle . Zimbardocreator of the also controversial 1971 Stanford Prisoner Experiment, which was stopped after college student volunteers acting as "guards" humiliated students acting as "prisoners"says Elliott's exercise is "more compelling than many done by professional psychologists. "I understand this is the first time you've flown?" The documentary has become a popular teaching tool among teachers, business owners, and even employees at correctional facilities. Jane Elliott, one of the most controversial figures in U.S. education and diversity training, began her journey to international acclaim in Riceville, Iowa. Let's just move on. PracticalPie.com is a participant in the Amazon Associates Program. 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. 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. We have to let people find out how it feels to be on the receiving end of that which we dish out so readily.". With this experiment she wanted to let the blue-eyed people (white people) feel how it is to be in low power position. 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. Elliott pulled out green construction paper armbands and asked each of the blue-eyed kids to wear one. Right off the bat, she picked me out of the room and called me Barbie, Pasicznyk told me. What Was the Purpose of the Blue Eyes Brown Eyes Experiment? Multi-Problem Adolescents: An Increasing Problem, Professor Jane Elliott performed a group experiment, the current problems related to discrimination. She left teaching in the mid-80s to speak publicly about the experience and the impact of prejudice and racism. To this day, at the age of 86, Jane Elliott continues this work. APA principles acknowledge that individuals rights to privacy, self-determination, and confidentiality is paramount to all psychological activities. She has since refused to answer any of my inquiries. Additionally, the brown-eyed students got to sit in the front of the class, while the blue-eyed kids . "Because we might catch something," a brown-eyed boy said. Essay Example, Essay Example on Racism Towards Black People, Essay Sample about Developing a Campaign for School Intimidation, Essay Example on Therapist-Client Relationship Boundaries, Islamic Perspective on Euthanasia, Free Essay Sample. What Was The Blue Eyes Brown Eyes Experiment? One of the main ones was the fact that their right to withdraw was taken away from them. 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. "That you, Ms. Perhaps because the outcome seemed so optimistic and comforting, coverage of Elliott and the experiments alleged curative powers cropped up everywhere. There are risks to those inoculations, too, but we determine that those risks are worth taking. The Blue Eyes and Brown Eyes Experiment. Blue-eyed people would get 5 extra minutes on the playground and blue-eyed people could not talk to brown-eyed people. She asked the other teachers what they were doing to bring news of the King assassination into their classrooms. January 1, 2003. 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. he asked. 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 . 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. Blue-eyed students suggested that the teacher use a yardstick to discipline brown-eyed students that misbehaved. And our number two freedom is the freedom to deny that were ignorant., I want every white person in this room who would be happy to be treated as this society in general treats our citizens, our black citizens, if you, as a white person, would be happy to receive the same treatment that our black citizens do in this society, please stand. The blue-eyed participants faced discrimination for two and a half hours. I got to have five minutes extra of recess." Mary and Zeke have three children, all of whom have blue eyes. The blue eyes brown eyes study was a study on group prejudice and discrimination conducted by Jane Elliot. The students initially involved wished that everyone could participate in an exercise like this. In the most uncomfortable moments, Elliott reminds the students of violent acts caused by racism or homophobia. The experiment, known as Blue Eyes Brown Eyes experiment, is regarded as an eye-opening way for children to learn about racism and discrimination. Would you like to get this essay by email? Elliott split her students into two groups, based on eye color. Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER! 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. "It's Riceville 30 years ago. The same experiment was also used a couple of years later with adults. Solve your problem differently! Ethics + Religion; Health; Politics + Society; . The "invisible knapsack" is an analogy for a set of invisible and not widely talked about privileges that white people possess in the society. The Blue Eyes Brown Eyes exercise continues to be relevant. 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. Privacy Statement Role Theory: Expectations, Identities, and Behaviors. One caller complained that white children would not be able to handle the exercise and would be seriously damaged by the exercise. Was The Blue Eyes Brown Eyes Experiment Ethical? One student answers, since the day I was born. Throughout the entire experiment, Elliott leads frank conversations about race and discrimination. 4. In this photograph from Sept. 13, 1965, Black children on their way to school in New York City pass by segregationists protesting integrated busing. "That's what I tried to teach, and that's what drove the other teachers crazy. That might have been the end of it, but a month later, Elliott says, Johnny Carson called her. Thousands of educators across the United States folded the experiment into their curriculums. Thats what it feels like when youre discriminated against., -A child participant in the Blue Eyes-Brown Eyes experiment-. 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. ABC broadcast a documentary about her work. (Byrnes & Kiger, 1992). One even wrote a lipstick message with racial slurs. 980 Words. Blue Eyed vs Brown Eyed Study Conducted by Jane Elliott Presentation by Bree Elliott Ethics Background The Results In 1968, when Dr. Martin Luther King Junior was assassinated, Jane Elliott was the teacher of a third grade class in the town of Riceville, Iowa. Grey eyes are also a rare eye color. Jane Elliott on The Tonight Show on May 31, 1968. He printed them under the headline "How Discrimination Feels." "The browneyed people are the better people in this room," Elliott began. She told the kids that blue-eyed children weren't as good as brown-eyed or green-eyed ones. She has appeared on the "Oprah Winfrey Show" five times. "We give our children shots to inoculate them against polio and smallpox, to protect them against the realities in the future. . Today, increased migration means more opportunities for people from different backgrounds to interact with each other, which is often a source of conflict. "We want to see Room No. "Hey, Mrs. Elliott," Steven yelled as he slung his books on his desk. Elliott and I were sitting at her dining room table. ", Jane shielded her eyes from the morning sun. At this point you may wish to tell the pupils that you are conducting an "experiment" to look at what prejudice is. Within a few hours of starting the exercise, Elliott noticed big differences in the childrens behavior and how they treated each other. Website. You give them something nice and they just wreck it." . At the time, she was a third-grade . The brown-eyed children felt suddenly that they were discriminated, while the blue eyed started seeing them as inferior. 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. Jane Elliot, a third-grade teacher from Lowa town, became troubled with the turn of events and knew that something had to be done about racial discrimination (Danko, 2013). She told them that people with brown eyes were better than people with blue eyes. Could you?". The empathy she works to inspire in students with the experiment, which has been modified over the years, is necessary, she said. If this arbitrary division that Elliott enforced for a few hours created so many problems in this classroom, whats happening on a larger scale? . Pasicznyk joined 75 other employees for a training session in the companys suburban Denver headquarters in the late 1980s. Jane Elliott's experiment. The children were not aware of the experiment, and therefore they could not give their permission of involvement. It's the Jane Elliott machine. She believed that experience was the only way her students could understand how it felt like to be discriminated. Researchers later concluded that there was evidence that the students became less prejudiced after the study and that it was inconclusive as to whether or not the potential harm outweighed the benefits of the exercise. Brian, the Elliotts' oldest son, got beaten up at school, and Jane called the ringleader's, mother. ", 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. Hire a professional with VAST experience! ISBN 9780520382268. On the second day of the experiment, Elliott switched the childrens roles. The 1970s and 1980s were ripe for diversity education in the private and public sectors, and Elliott would try out the experiment at workshops on tens of thousands of participants, not just in the U.S. and Canada, but in Europe, the Middle East and Australia. It occurs to me that for a teacher, the arrival of new students at the start of each school year has a lot in common with the return of crops each summer. . There is a way to avoid editing or writing from scratch! If you are the original author of this essay and no longer wish to have it published on the The Blue Eyes Brown Eyes exercise is now known as the inspiration for diversity training in the workplace, making Jane Elliott one of the most influential educators in recent American history. 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." . Jane Elliott, a teacher and anti-racism activist, performed a direct experiment with the students in her classroom. The blue-eyed girl apologized. She told them that people with brown eyes were superior to those with blue eyes, for reasons she made up. Or alternatively you may decide to keep them in ignorance of what is happening. The tallest structure in Riceville is the water tower. Danko, M. (2013). That got the other teachers angry. I'm tired of hearing about her and her experiment and how everyone here is a racist. I interviewed Julie Pasicznyk, who had been working for US West, a giant telecommunications company in Minneapolis. Sorry, but it's not possible to copy the text due to security reasons. Dick DeMarsico/New York World-Telegram & the Sun Newspaper Photograph Collection/PhotoQuest/Getty Images, Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images, Committee Member - MNF Research Advisory Committee, PhD Scholarship - Uncle Isaac Brown Indigenous Scholarship. 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. (2013). There were more brown-eyed students in the room. When she separated the class by eye color and announced that blue-eyed children were superior, Paul Bodensteiner objected at every turn. American Psychological Association, 4. 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 also made the brown-eyed students put construction paper armbands on the blue-eyed students. PracticalPsychology. Junior high, maybe. 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. The idea was simple but profound. 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. . The Associated Press followed up, quoting Elliott as saying she was "dumbfounded" by the exercise's effectiveness. Elliott rattled off the rules for the day, saying blue-eyed kids had to use paper cups if they drank from the water fountain. Jane Elliott is 84 years old, a tiny woman with white hair, wire-rim glasses and little patience. One group consisted pupils with brown eye while the other group consisted of those with blue eyes. 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. ", Walt Gabelmann, 83, was Riceville's mayor for 18 years beginning in 1966. After the exercise white college students in . She says its because racism, sexism, homophobia, ageism, and ethnocentrism are mean and nasty. In this 1998 photograph, former Iowa teacher Jane Elliott, center, speaks with two Augsburg University . In Zimbardo's experiment the conditions were much more controlled for later study but the r. 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). That says very plainly that you know whats happening, you know you dont want it for you. "She got carried away by this possession she developed over human beings. 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. Exploring your mind Blog about psychology and philosophy. In a grassy front yard down the block is a hand-lettered sign: "Glads for Sale, 3 for $1." The brown-eyed people were told to step to the front of the line. Their response is to create dichotomies of inferiority and superiority. In 1970, she demonstrated it for educators at a White House Conference on Children and Youth. THE ANGRY EYE , a 35-minute video, features Jane Elliott conducting her Blue Eyed/Brown Eyed exercise with college students. She split the class in two categories, according to eye color, and told the children that one group was superior to the others. Much like the Zimbardo's Stanford Prison experiment where students were divided by either being the jailer or the jailed. Jane divided the class into 9 brown eyes and 9 blue eyes. Normally, blue-eyes isnt an insult. She learned that the responses from the children were negative and more generalized about what they thought about black people. 4 Pages. Scores of others did participate. The Blue-Eyes, Brown-Eyes Experiment. Little children don't like uproar in the classroom. She has . . In explaining the experiment rules to the brown-eyed contestants, she addresses the people of color in the room. At first, she cooperated with me. She then told them that the children with blue eyes were inherently inferior to the children with brown . one girl asked. One key assumption is that the sample population represents an actual society. She nodded. "How dare you try this cruel experiment out on white children," one said. ", "I've never forgotten the exercise," Whisenhunt volunteered. Proceeding with the experiment, Elliot divided the children into two groups each with nine pupils. Students in the inferior groups were more likely to get a worse score. Consequently, the brown-eyed children started using blue-eyes as an insult. 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. ", Steve Harnack, 62, served as the elementary school principal beginning in 1977. But Elliotts experiment had a more sinister impact. 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. In the documentary, she said that she conducted the original blue-eyes, brown-eyes experiment to make a positive change. The next day when the tables were turned, "I felt like quitting school. Order original essays online. They felt superior and had the support of the authority figure (the teacher). After recess that day, the brown-eyed children complained that they were . It is quite powerful to watch. In Building Moral Intelligence: The Seven Essential Virtues That Teach Kids to Do the Right Things, educational psychologist Michele Borda says it "teaches our children to counter stereotypes before they become full-fledged, lasting prejudices and to recognize that every human being has the right to be treated with respect." She also made the brown-eyed students put construction paper armbands on the blue-eyed students. 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. Folks leave their cars unlocked, keys in the ignition. They all either smiled or laughed and nodded.". Separate the class into two halves - those with blue eyes and those with brown. About Press Copyright Contact us Creators Advertise Developers Terms Privacy Policy & Safety How YouTube works Test new features NFL Sunday Ticket Press Copyright . Thats how it started, and thats how it went all day long. The students who had blue eyes were told that they were better and smarter than their inferior brown-eyed peers. Not everyone appreciated Elliotts exercise. The students were surprised, but they didnt argue. 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 . "She said, on the day after Martin Luther King Jr. was killed, 'I don't know why you're doing that I thought it was about time somebody shot that son of a bitch,' " she said. They are cleaner than blue-eyed people. "She taught in this school for 18 years." Delivery in 6+ hours! 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. Thus, the dominant group, supported by the authorities, will always have the upper hand. In this documentary, Jane Elliott, a third grade teacher divided her class into two groups based on their eye color; one group had blue eyes and the other had brown eyes. 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. She continued to conduct the exercise with her third graders. I felt like quitting school. In present society, psychological experiments are guided by honesty, truthfulness, and accuracy. Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER! They didnt need to engage with a single Black person. Now, almost four decades later, Elliott's experiment still mattersto the grown children with whom she experimented, to the people of Riceville, population 840, who all but ran her out of town, and to thousands of people around the world who have also participated in an exercise based on the experiment. Alan Charles Kors, a professor of history at the University of Pennsylvania, says Elliott's diversity training is "Orwellian" and singled her out as "the Torquemada of thought reform." However, in this classroom, having blue-eyes had become a condition of inferiority. This technique allows researchers to show how many different traits are necessary to create defined groups, and then analyze the subjects behavior within their groups. ", Elliott defends her work as a mother defends her child. Sign up for Politics Weekly.]. hide caption. We walked into the principal's office at RicevilleElementary School, Elliott's old haunt. How can we teach kids to be more like him? The brown-eyed students also exercised a certain level of power over the blue-eyed students when they put the armbands on them. 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. Even though some of the children said yes, Elliott pushed back. Practical Psychology began as a collection of study material for psychology students in 2016, created by a student in the field. Thats just the way blue-eyed kids were, Elliott told the students. Two years later, a BBC documentary captured the experiment in Elliott's classroom. Elliott pulled out green construction paper armbands and asked each of the blue . She traveled to corporations, banks, prisons, schools and military bases. 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 appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show five times. To back up my statement Bloom (2005) says Jane Elliott's blue-eyes brown-eyes exercise encouraged children to mistrust authority figures. The episode features with new footage of the students, who are now adults. Elliott was shocked by the results and decided to switch the roles the following day. Once indoors, the brown-eyed group was then treated to coffee and doughnuts, while the blue-eyed group could only stand around and wait. Jane Elliot's experiment explains the reasons for discrimination to a small extent. 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. 1. Words are the most powerful weapon devised by humankind. Blue eyes, brown eyes: What Jane Elliott's famous experiment says about race 50 years on. Many critics that the children were too young to understand the exercise. In response to the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968, Jane Elliott devised the controversial and startling, "Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes Exercise." This, now famous, exercise labels participants as inferior or superior based solely upon the color of their eyes and exposes them to the experience of . Elliott is nothing if not stubborn. However, the study shows some bias in the sample size and race of participants. Below, . The people and cultures already present in a place often feel threatened by new immigrants. Everyone looked at Mrs. Elliott. The secretary on duty looked up, startled, as if she had just seen a ghost. ", A former teacher, Ruth Setka, 79, said she was perhaps the only teacher who would still talk to Elliott. This paradigm helps understand the current problems related to discrimination. Select from the 0 categories from which you would like to receive articles. Jane Elliott's brown eye/blue eye experiment starts at 03:10 of A Class Divided. Youve probably heard different versions of it. Weve been here before, with unsettling and disturbing results. "I know who she is. "If this ugly change, if this negative change can happen this quickly, why can't positive change happen that quickly? The students started to internalize, and accept, the characteristics they'd been arbitrarily assigned based on the color of their eyes. She says that its shocking how children whore normally kind, cooperative, and friendly with each other suddenly become arrogant, discriminatory, and hostile when they belong to a superior group. Kids on top would tease the children who were deemed as the inferior group. "The racists carry on, so I carry on." The lives and legacies of Dr. Jane Elliott and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. are inextricably linked. In Jane Elliott's experiment she made the third graders believe that the blue eyed people were better,than the brown eyed people. They are steeped in centuries of economic deprivation and cultural appropriation. The demonstration has since been taught by generations of teachers to millions of kids across the country. Throughout the day, Elliott continued to give the children with blue eyes special treatment.

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