"She could get kids to do anything she wanted them to," he says of Elliott. All rights reserved. Things even got violent at recess. "That's what I tried to teach, and that's what drove the other teachers crazy. The people and cultures already present in a place often feel threatened by new immigrants. Nevertheless, Elliott became as famous as a teacher could become in America. Elliot wanted to show that the same thing happens in real life with brown eyed people (minority). 980 Words. Some guidelines for avoiding or reducing this effect are: In conclusion, Jane Elliotts experiment demonstrates the fragility of coexistence and cooperation. 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. You have the right color eyes!. 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. 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. In the early morning, dew and fog cover the acres of gently swaying stalks that surround Riceville the way water surrounds an island. The roots of racism and why it continues unabated in America and other nations are complicated and gnarled. She split the class in two categories, according to eye color, and told the children that one group was superior to the others. She says its because racism, sexism, homophobia, ageism, and ethnocentrism are mean and nasty. "We just want to peek in," I volunteered. Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct. 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. 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. The Brown Eyed / Blue Eyed Experiment. Students in the inferior groups were more likely to get a worse score. Solve your problem differently! They are steeped in centuries of economic deprivation and cultural appropriation. 5/21/2020 Topic: Module 2 Discussion: ", Vision and tenacity may get results, but they don't always endear a person to her neighbors. The kids in the bottom group became timider and kept to themselves. Regardless of age, gender, race, ethnicity or socioeconomic status, decision making in psychology should protect individual rights and welfare to eliminate potential biases. Fourteen years later, the students featured in The Eye of the Storm reunited and discussed their experiences with Elliott. 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 . When some of the . In a grassy front yard down the block is a hand-lettered sign: "Glads for Sale, 3 for $1." "They can't forget me," she said, "and because of who they are, they can't forgive me. 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. A columnist at a Denver newspaper called it "evil. In this photograph from Sept. 13, 1965, Black children on their way to school in New York City pass by segregationists protesting integrated busing. All the work should be used in accordance with the appropriate policies and applicable laws. Thus, the dominant group, supported by the authorities, will always have the upper hand. "On an airplane, it is," Elliott said to appreciative laughter from the studio audience. In the documentary, she said that she conducted the original blue-eyes, brown-eyes experiment to make a positive change. Jane Elliott (ne Jennison; born on November 30, 1933) is an American diversity educator.As a schoolteacher, she became known for her "Blue eyes/Brown eyes" exercise, which she first conducted with her third-grade class on April 5, 1968, the day after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. Elliott rattled off the rules for the day, saying blue-eyed kids had to use paper cups if they drank from the water fountain. Privacy Statement What Was the Purpose of the Blue Eyes Brown Eyes Experiment? But Elliotts experiment had a more sinister impact. We have to let people find out how it feels to be on the receiving end of that which we dish out so readily.". Subsequently the brown-eyed children stopped objecting, even when Miss Elliott and the blue-eyed kids chastised and bullied them. The minimal group paradigm has shaped an entire methodology in social psychology. Abstract The effectiveness of a well-known prejudice-reduction simulation, "Blue Eyes-Brown Eyes," was assessed as a tool for changing the attitudes of ncnblack teacher eduction students toward blacks. Terms of Use You've still got that same sweet smile. I felt like hitting them if I wanted to. The demonstration has since been taught by generations of teachers to millions of kids across the country. It brings up immediate anger and hatred. 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. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. Perhaps because the outcome seemed so optimistic and comforting, coverage of Elliott and the experiments alleged curative powers cropped up everywhere. 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. Elliott split her students into two groups, based on eye color. Words are the most powerful weapon devised by humankind. 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. Elliott asked. The brown-eyed students also exercised a certain level of power over the blue-eyed students when they put the armbands on them. "Brown-eyed people have more of that chemical in their eyes, so brown-eyed people are better than those with blue eyes," Elliott said. When Sarah, the Elliotts' oldest daughter, went to the girls' bathroom in junior high, she came out of a stall to see a message scrawled in red lipstick on the mirror: "Nigger lover.". Let's just move on. Jane Elliott, shown here in 2009, remains an outspoken advocate against racism. Elliott turned into Americas mother of diversity training. Despite the adaptation of the experiment in psychological studies, Jane has been widely criticized for her unethical conduct and promotion of discrimination among children. (She prefers the term "exercise.") Would you? "We want to see Room No. "She taught in this school for 18 years." I often think about Paul Bodensteiner. Blue-eyed students slumped in their chairs, as though . 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. ", Elliott defends her work as a mother defends her child. She told her students that she had made a mistake the previous day and that brown-eyed students . Is it even possible today? Malinda Whisenhunt? hide caption. A smart blue-eyed girl who had never had problems with multiplication tables started making mistakes. The anti-racism sessions Elliott led were intense. Jane Elliott's Blue Eyes and Brown Eyes experiment was a turning point in social psychology. That spring morning 37 years ago, the blue-eyed children were set apart from the children with brown or green eyes. And what she did caused an uproar. New York: Elsevier Science. She told them that people with brown eyes were better than people with blue eyes. Order original essays online. A difference as simple as eye color, defined and established by the authority figure, created a rift between the students. One of the blue eyed even went to hit a brown eyed just for the fact that he was brown eyed. Kids on top would tease the children who were deemed as the inferior group. Racism is not genetical. Nobodys standing here. One of the main ones was the fact that their right to withdraw was taken away from them. The secretary on duty looked up, startled, as if she had just seen a ghost. Exploring your mind Blog about psychology and philosophy. "Probably because they have been taught how they're treated in this country that they have to understand us. The next day, Elliott reversed the roles. Many critics that the children were too young to understand the exercise. In 2001, Jane Elliott recordedThe Angry Eye,in which she revised and updated her experiment. 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. 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. Sorry, but it's not possible to copy the text due to security reasons. Two education professors in England, Ivor F. Goodson and Pat Sikes, suggest that Elliott's experiment was unethical because the participants weren't informed of its real purpose beforehand. Why was the Blue Eyes and Brown Eyes Experiment considered unethical in psychology? Carson asked, grinning. "People of other color groups seem to understand," she said. 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. She wanted to show her students that an arbitrarily established difference could separate them and pit them against each other. "Not one of them reprimanded her for that or even corrected her. Elliott, who is white, separated the students into two groupsthose with blue eyes and those with brown eyes. ", "I've never forgotten the exercise," Whisenhunt volunteered. Practical Psychology began as a collection of study material for psychology students in 2016, created by a student in the field.