She has spoken at more than 350 colleges and universities. Need an original essay on Essay Sample: Ethical Concerns in Jane Elliot's Experiment? (In later versions of the exercise, children in the inferior group were given collars to wear.). 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. She told them that people with brown eyes were better than people with blue eyes. Given the ethical concerns, will you still rely on a quasi-experimental research design as a source of information in counselling psychology? 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. Jane Elliot and the Blue-Eyed Children Experiment. Three sections were selected to be administered the simulation . Back when she introduced the experiment to her Iowa students more than five decades ago, at least one student had the audacity to challenge Elliotts premise, according to those who were in the classroom at the time. Even though some of the children said yes, Elliott pushed back. On the first day, the blue-eyed students were informed that they were genetically inferior to the brown-eyed students. Its not true and its not fair no matter what you say! he responded. At her lunch break that day in the teacher's lounge, she told her colleagues about the exercise. It is sometimes cited as a landmark of social science. The people of riceville did not exactly welcome Elliott home from New York with a hayride. New York: Elsevier Science. The anti-racism sessions Elliott led were intense. Ethical & Pedagogical Issues 2. After recess that day, the brown-eyed children complained that they were . Right off the bat, she picked me out of the room and called me Barbie, Pasicznyk told me. Elliott split her students into two groups, based on eye color. Outside, rows of corn stretched to the horizon. 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. Before proceeding with the test, she began with random questions to fully understand the children's perception of Negroes. The results were the same. 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. 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. 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. She then made the blue-eyed students believe that they were better and smarter than their counterparts. One even wrote a lipstick message with racial slurs. Why do researchers use correlational studies? 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. The basic idea was to separate the class into two halves - those with blue eyes and those with brown. She said she watched and was horrified at what she saw. Cookie Settings, Kids Start Forgetting Early Childhood Around Age 7, Archaeologists Discover Wooden Spikes Described by Julius Caesar, Artificial Sweetener Tied to Risk of Heart Attack and Stroke, Study Finds, Rare Jurassic-Era Insect Discovered at Arkansas Walmart. The hate and discrimination that we see in adults have their origin in their upbringing. The results are mixed. ", Elliott defends her work as a mother defends her child. She learned that the responses from the children were negative and more generalized about what they thought about black people. Elliott championed the experiment as an inoculation against racism., [The Conversations Politics + Society editors pick need-to-know stories. 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. They also harassed them constantly. Elliott is nothing if not stubborn. . Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER! When the blue-eyed group saw that the brown-eyed group was going to be seated first, some became upset. This time, the participants werent a bunch of elementary school children they were young adults. School ought to be about developing character, but most teachers won't touch that with a ten-foot pole.". Some guidelines for avoiding or reducing this effect are: In conclusion, Jane Elliotts experiment demonstrates the fragility of coexistence and cooperation. She decided to continue the exercise with her students after lunch. "Do blue-eyed people remember what they've been taught?" "We just want to peek in," I volunteered. 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. 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. Danko, M. (2013). "Black children grow up accustomed to such behavior, but white children, there's no way they could possibly understand it. Considering all the stereotypes and prejudices that exist, what kind of damage is being done? Why was the Blue Eyes and Brown Eyes Experiment considered unethical in psychology? She began this work in Within a few hours of starting the exercise, Elliott noticed big differences in the childrens behavior and how they treated each other. To this day, at the age of 86, Jane Elliott continues this work. The effectiveness of a well-known prejudice-reduction simulation activity, "Blue Eyes-Brown Eyes," was assessed as a tool for changing the attitudes of nonblack teacher education students toward blacks. Lesson of a Lifetime | Science| Smithsonian Magazine Kids on top would tease the children who were deemed as the inferior group. "She taught in this school for 18 years." The smell of the crops and loam and topsoil and manure wafted though the open door. That same year, Elliott was invited to the White House Conference on Children and Youth to conduct an exercise on adult educators. Undeterred, Elliott tried to appeal to Pauls self-interest. Kellen Castineiras PSY Dr. Gail C. Flanagan February 6, 2022. . Elliott split her students into two groups, based on eye color. With a couple of basic and arbitrary examples, Elliott made the case that brown-eyed people were better. I got to have five minutes extra of recess." Thus, the dominant group, supported by the authorities, will always have the upper hand. She wanted to show her students that an arbitrarily established difference could separate them and pit them against each other. 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. Although Jane Elliot's intentions were to teach the youngsters about racism, ethical issues related to the simulation were raised. Most Riceville residents seem to have an opinion of Elliott, whether or not they've met her. Nevertheless, Elliott became as famous as a teacher could become in America. The children said yes, and the exercise began. The answer, in a word, was nothing. Students in the inferior groups were more likely to get a worse score. I felt mad. There were more brown-eyed students in the room. This paradigm helps understand the current problems related to discrimination. The blue-eyed participants faced discrimination for two and a half hours. Two Important Psychological Experiments: The Blue Eye/Brown Eye and She asked her students, who were all white, whether or not they knew what it felt like to be judged by the color of their skin. BLUE EYED - Faciliator Guide - Newsreel people are better than blue-eyed people. In Zimbardo's experiment the conditions were much more controlled for later study but the r. Weve been here before, with unsettling and disturbing results. Two students even got into a physical altercation. Elliott began the exercise by dividing her students by eye color. Blue-eyed students suggested that the teacher use a yardstick to discipline brown-eyed students that misbehaved. Blue-eyed children got five extra minutes of recess. 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. Elliott went after Ken and Barbie all day long, drilling, accusing, ridiculing them, to make the point that whites make baseless judgments about Blacks all the time, Pasicznyk said. Jane Elliott, shown here in 2009, remains an outspoken advocate against racism. One caller complained that white children would not be able to handle the exercise and would be seriously damaged by the exercise. View Module 2 Discussion_ Are We Still Divided_ Blue Eyes_Brown Eyes_ A 3rd Grade Lesson for Us All.pdf from HUMN 330 at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. Not only were they fewer in numbers, but the authority figure was against them. . "This here is Jane Elliott," I said. Problems with this research were that it went against a lot of ethical issues. 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 . Blue-eyed people. And you'll always have it. On the day after Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered in April 1968, Jane Elliott's third graders from the small, all-white town of Riceville, Iowa, came to class . Delivery in 6+ hours! Knowing that her experiment would have consequences, Jane remained committed to her course. Now 45, she had been in Elliott's third grade class in 1969. Jane Elliots work and experiences have made her an authority on education and anti-racism. It is quite powerful to watch. PDF Blue eye Brown eye activity - The Classroom Elliott's friends and family say she's tenacious, and has always had a reformer's zeal. Is your time best spent reading someone elses essay? We use them to divide and destroy people., On Understanding The Different Ways We Treat Other Races, Philip Zimbardo (Biography + Experiments). She could feel a chasm forming between the two groups of students. Ethical Principles of Psychologists & Code of Conduct - StudyMode The ethical concerns arising from the experiment are consent and deception. "Why?" But the protests happening now have given her hope. Elliott reminded them that the reason for the lesson was the King assassination, and she asked them to write down what they had learned. 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. 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. According to the article is Jane Elliot's experiment to small degree effective. The assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968 prompted educator Jane Elliott to create the now-famous "blue eyes/brown eyes exercise.". The fact that children are easy to manipulate into acting in a particular manner explains Jane's choice of sample. Focusing on ethics the experiment violated some of the principles and codes of conduct established by the American Psychological Association. The Daring Racism Experiment That People Still Talk About 20 - HuffPost Pasicznyk joined 75 other employees for a training session in the companys suburban Denver headquarters in the late 1980s. Blue Eye / Brown Eye experiment - Everything2.com Jane Elliott is 84 years old, a tiny woman with white hair, wire-rim glasses and little patience. Its goal was to demonstrate what prejudice was to her third grade class. Jane Elliott's experiment. It has everything to do with power.. SpeedyPaper website, please click below to request its removal: Liked this essay sample but need an original one? Elliot wanted to show that the same thing happens in real life with brown eyed people (minority). Elliott was even brought on The Tonight Show to talk about her experiences. The secretary on duty looked up, startled, as if she had just seen a ghost. She appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show five times. 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. 5/21/2020 Topic: Module 2 Discussion: Essay Sample: Ethical Concerns in Jane Elliot's Experiment. Blue Eyes Brown Eyes - Jane Elliott | Practical Psychology PracticalPie.com is a participant in the Amazon Associates Program. Consequently, the brown-eyed children started using blue-eyes as an insult. "A Class Divided": How We Learn to Discriminate - Psychology Today In 1970, Elliott would come to national attention when ABC broadcast their Eye of the Storm documentary which filmed the experiment in action. She pointed out flaws in a student and associated it with . Tears formed in the corners of Elliott's eyes. Everyone looked at Mrs. Elliott. But not Elliott. 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. The first thing that Jane Elliott did was divide the children into groups: those with blue eyes and those with brown eyes. March 26, 1985. Jane Elliott | Psychology Wiki | Fandom "She was an excellent school teacher, but she has a way about her," says 90-year-old Riceville native Patricia Bodenham, who has known Elliott since Jane was a baby. Much like the Zimbardo's Stanford Prison experiment where students were divided by either being the jailer or the jailed. 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. a brown-eyed boy asked. She also made the brown-eyed students put construction paper armbands on the blue-eyed students. The three outcomes are: (1) virtually all of the subjects reported that the experience was I was stunned. The "invisible knapsack" is an analogy for a set of invisible and not widely talked about privileges that white people possess in the society. To begin with, Jane Elliot's experiment involved deception in which the children were made in believing that change in eye color influence intelligence. Blue Eyes, Brown Eyes by Stephen G. Bloom - Hardcover - University of The results showed a reversal effect in which the blue-eyed students showed signs of inferiority and low self-esteem. She told the students that the brown-eyed children were inferior and repeated the experiment. . The brown-eyed students also exercised a certain level of power over the blue-eyed students when they put the armbands on them. She and Darald split their time between a converted schoolhouse in Osage, Iowa, a town 18 miles from Riceville, and a home near Riverside, California. One of the main ones was the fact that their right to withdraw was taken away from them. 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 idea of white privilege is closely tied to Elliotts initial question to her students. She told her students that she had made a mistake the previous day and that brown-eyed students . But Elliotts experiment had a more sinister impact. The experiment, known as Blue Eyes Brown Eyes experiment, is regarded as an eye-opening way for children to learn about racism and discrimination. Fourteen years later, the students featured in The Eye of the Storm reunited and discussed their experiences with Elliott. she asked the children, who were white. Society made them believe they were better than other people for arbitrary reasons such as skin color or gender. Could you?". That's what it feels like when you're discriminated against.". he asked. The Brown Eyed / Blue Eyed Experiment. In fact, most of the initial response was negative. 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. Her bold experiment to teach Iowa third graders about racial prejudice divided townspeople and thrust her onto the national stage. When some of the . I felt mad. The students initially involved wished that everyone could participate in an exercise like this. Then a picture was taken to remember. . These initial criticisms didnt stop Elliott. [online] Today I Found Out. It has since evolved into an online blog and YouTube channel providing mental health advice, tools, and academic support to individuals from all backgrounds. One scholar asserts that it is "Orwellian" and teaches whites "self-contempt." Jane Elliott has done a lot of reflection about the consequences of the minimal group experiment. One of the most famous experiments in education Jane Elliott's "blue eyes, brown eyes" separation of her third grade students to teach them about prejudice was very different from what the public was told, as revealed in this excerpt from the in-depth story about what really happened in that classroom. Jane divided the class into 9 brown eyes and 9 blue eyes. 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. We Are Repeating The Discrimination Experiment Every Day, Says - KQED She then told them that the children with blue eyes were inherently inferior to the children with brown . 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. January 1, 2003. In her article, Peggy McIntosh compares the "white privilege" to an invisible set of unearned rewards and . They gossiped about her in the hallway. 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. "They can't forget me," she said, "and because of who they are, they can't forgive me. She was hesitant to enroll in Elliotts workshop but was told that if she wanted to succeed as a manager, shed have to attend. 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." Two years later, a BBC documentary captured the experiment in Elliott's classroom. ", A former teacher, Ruth Setka, 79, said she was perhaps the only teacher who would still talk to Elliott. According to the Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct, 2010 the experiment also violates the principle of Integrity. ", Walt Gabelmann, 83, was Riceville's mayor for 18 years beginning in 1966. 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. I have brown eyes. 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.
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