blue eyes brown eyes experiment ethical issues blue eyes brown eyes experiment ethical issues

The experiment known as Blue Eyes Brown Eyes experiment is regarded as an eye-opening way for children to learn about racism and discrimination. When Elliott walked into the teachers' lounge the next Monday, several teachers got up and walked out. In the early morning, dew and fog cover the acres of gently swaying stalks that surround Riceville the way water surrounds an island. "People of other color groups seem to understand," she said. The idea of white privilege is closely tied to Elliotts initial question to her students. "The browneyed people are the better people in this room," Elliott began. They wouldnt be allowed second helpings for lunch. One example that has been in place for many years is the blue-eyed/brown-eyed experiment. Answer (1 of 3): My guess is that is doesn't really represent racism but classism. [White people] on the other hand, don't have to understand them. 10," Elliott said. The basic idea was to separate the class into two halves - those with blue eyes and those with brown. They killed hundreds of thousands of people based on eye color alone, thats the reason I used eye color for my determining factor that day., Elliott divided the class into children with blue eyes and children with brown eyes. The blue-eyed participants faced discrimination for two and a half hours. Little children don't like uproar in the classroom. "I know who she is. Still, Elliott said the last few years have brought out America's worst racist tendencies. The idea was simple but profound. About Press Copyright Contact us Creators Advertise Developers Terms Privacy Policy & Safety How YouTube works Test new features NFL Sunday Ticket Press Copyright . He printed them under the headline "How Discrimination Feels." 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. But Elliotts experiment had a more sinister impact. . 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. those with brown eyes (or hazel eyes). Professor Jane Elliott performed a group experiment with her students that they would never forget. The more melanin, the darker the person's eyesand the smarter the person. "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. Jane Elliott's Blue Eyes and Brown Eyes experiment was a turning point in social psychology. "We want to see Room No. On Friday, April 5, 1968, in Riceville, IA, a third-grade student walked . "She taught in this school for 18 years." The following are some of her most insightful quotes on these issues. "Mention two wordsJane Elliottand you get a flood of emotions from people," says Jim Cross, the Riceville Recorder's editor these days. Below, . 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. She wanted them to understand what discrimination felt like. It is quite powerful to watch. Ethical & Pedagogical Issues 2. Undeterred, Elliott tried to appeal to Pauls self-interest. The secretary said the south side of the building was closed, something about waxing the hallways. The smell of the crops and loam and topsoil and manure wafted though the open door. She was a local girl and the other teachers were intimidated by her success. 4. American Psychological Association, 4. What Was the Purpose of the Blue Eyes Brown Eyes Experiment? If you have ever heard of the self-fulfilling prophecy, these results may not come as a surprise. "Maybe the way to sell the exercise would have been to invite the parents in, to talk about what she'd be doing. The arbitrary division among the students intensified over the course of the experiment, so much so that it actually ended in physical violence. Subsequently the brown-eyed children stopped objecting, even when Miss Elliott and the blue-eyed kids chastised and bullied them. It is sometimes cited as a landmark of social science. It has since evolved into an online blog and YouTube channel providing mental health advice, tools, and academic support to individuals from all backgrounds. ", Then, the inevitable: "Hey, Mrs. Elliott, how come you're the teacher if you've got blue eyes?" 5/21/2020 Topic: Module 2 Discussion: The blue-eyed girl apologized. 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. I got to have five minutes extra of recess." The brown-eyed students also exercised a certain level of power over the blue-eyed students when they put the armbands on them. This bibliography was generated on Cite This For Me on Monday, March 7, 2016. "On an airplane, it is," Elliott said to appreciative laughter from the studio audience. Delivery in 6+ hours! The kids in the bottom group became timider and kept to themselves. What Was The Blue Eyes Brown Eyes Experiment? 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. The next day, Elliott reversed the roles. "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. "Well, what do you expect from him, Mrs. Elliott," a brown-eyed student said as a blue-eyed student got an arithmetic problem wrong. Ethical issues were 1/3 of the participants refused to take the head off the rat . SpeedyPaper website, please click below to request its removal: Liked this essay sample but need an original one? The blue-eyed participants faced discrimination for two and a half hours. 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. But Paul, one of eight siblings and the son of a dairy farmer, didnt buy Elliotts mollification. That says very plainly that you know whats happening, you know you dont want it for you. In Zimbardo's experiment the conditions were much more controlled for later study but the r. . Separate the class into two halves - those with blue eyes and those with brown. I felt mad. 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. A second look at the blue-eyes, brown-eyes experiment that taught third-graders about racism. 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. SpeedyPaper.com 2023 All rights reserved. 980 Words. A smart blue-eyed girl who had never had problems with multiplication tables started making mistakes. On the first day of the experiment, Elliott told the children who had blue eyes that they were superior to the children with brown eyes; that they were better, nicer and smarter. Yes, that day was tough. ", We stopped on Woodlawn Avenue, and a woman in her mid-40s approached us on the sidewalk. Was The Blue Eyes Brown Eyes Experiment Ethical? 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." 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. Role Theory: Expectations, Identities, and Behaviors. 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. Elliott flew to the NBC studio in New York City. 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. Classroom experiment. ", Jane shielded her eyes from the morning sun. ", Vision and tenacity may get results, but they don't always endear a person to her neighbors. To back up my statement Bloom (2005) says Jane Elliott's blue-eyes brown-eyes exercise encouraged children to mistrust authority figures. Articles and opinions on happiness, fear and other aspects of human psychology. 2012 2023 . PracticalPie.com is a participant in the Amazon Associates Program. Pasicznyk joined 75 other employees for a training session in the companys suburban Denver headquarters in the late 1980s. The tallest structure in Riceville is the water tower. Right off the bat, she picked me out of the room and called me Barbie, Pasicznyk told me. Elliott was even brought on The Tonight Show to talk about her experiences. Want a quality guarantee? She left teaching in the mid-80s to speak publicly about the experience and the impact of prejudice and racism. There are risks to those inoculations, too, but we determine that those risks are worth taking. Her class, 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? 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. In a grassy front yard down the block is a hand-lettered sign: "Glads for Sale, 3 for $1." When Elliott first conducted the exercise in 1968, brown-eyed students were given special privileges. "Let me look at you," Elliott said. Nevertheless, Elliott became as famous as a teacher could become in America. The next day when the tables were turned, "I felt like quitting school. Its not surprising to anyone that some social groups discriminate against others due to ethnicity, religion, or culture. Most Riceville residents seem to have an opinion of Elliott, whether or not they've met her. "It changed my life. Blue-eyed students suggested that the teacher use a yardstick to discipline brown-eyed students that misbehaved. 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 same experiment was also used a couple of years later with adults. Why do researchers use correlational studies? The brown-eyed children began to act aggressive and mean towards the blue-eyed children. ( 1985-03-26) " A Class Divided " is a 1985 episode of the PBS series Frontline. Thats how it started, and thats how it went all day long. This was intentional. The results showed a reversal effect in which the blue-eyed students showed signs of inferiority and low self-esteem. "Hey, Mrs. Elliott," Steven yelled as he slung his books on his desk. In present society, psychological experiments are guided by honesty, truthfulness, and accuracy. Biddle, B. J. 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. 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." In doing the research for my book with scores of peoples who were participants in the experiment, I reached out to Elliott. ", 2023 Smithsonian Magazine When some of the . Jane Elliott on The Tonight Show on May 31, 1968. That might have been the end of it, but a month later, Elliott says, Johnny Carson called her. "Because we might catch something," a brown-eyed boy said. 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. Introduction. When she separated the class by eye color and announced that blue-eyed children were superior, Paul Bodensteiner objected at every turn. But the protests happening now have given her hope. That spring morning 37 years ago, the blue-eyed children were set apart from the children with brown or green eyes. In this scenario, students are told brown-eyed people . The contents of Exploring Your Mind are for informational and educational purposes only. Jane Elliott, a teacher and anti-racism activist, performed a direct experiment with the students in her classroom. Before she could answer, another boy piped up: "If she didn't have blue eyes, she'd be the principal or the superintendent.". They were forced to sit on the back rows and had to use a . She began this work in We dont have to learn about those who are other than white. "This here is Jane Elliott," I said. In 2001, Jane Elliott recordedThe Angry Eye,in which she revised and updated her experiment. One caller complained that white children would not be able to handle . In the documentary, she said that she conducted the original blue-eyes, brown-eyes experiment to make a positive change. To get her points across, Elliott hurled insults at workshop participants, particularly those who were white and had blue eyes. The students initially involved wished that everyone could participate in an exercise like this. 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. Open Document. When my grandchildren are old enough, I'd give anything if you'd try the exercise out on them. The second day, Elliott reversed the groups. Elliott began the exercise by dividing her students by eye color. The day after Martin Luther King Jr. was shot, Elliott had a talk with her students about diversity and racism. Then tell them that . Directed by William Peters, the episode profiles the Iowa schoolteacher Jane Elliott and her class of third graders, who took part in a class exercise about discrimination and prejudice in 1970 and reunited in the present day to recall the experience. As the morning wore on, brown-eyed kids berated their blue-eyed classmates. "You can see the look on their faces. The searing story is a cautionary tale that examines power and privilege in and out of the classroom. The hate and discrimination that we see in adults have their origin in their upbringing. The results were the same. The assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968 prompted educator Jane Elliott to create the now-famous "blue eyes/brown eyes exercise.". You've still got that same sweet smile. Elliott? In her article, Peggy McIntosh compares the "white privilege" to an invisible set of unearned rewards and . Jane Elliott is 84 years old, a tiny woman with white hair, wire-rim glasses and little patience. Brown-eyed people. This way, she successfully created two distinct groups in her classroom: The consequences of the minimal group became evident very quickly. 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. 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. The Blue Eyes Brown Eyes exercise received national attention shortly after it ended. Keep me from judging a man until I have walked a mile in his moccasins. This is a Sioux saying. 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. Much like the Zimbardo's Stanford Prison experiment where students were divided by either being the jailer or the jailed. At her lunch break that day in the teacher's lounge, she told her colleagues about the exercise. Elliott pulled out green construction paper armbands and asked each of the blue-eyed kids to wear one. 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. . Is it even possible today? 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 . It also shows how arbitrary and subjective things can turn friends, family members, and citizens against each other. Children often fight, argue, and sometimes hit each other, but this time they were motivated by eye color. She traveled to corporations, banks, prisons, schools and military bases. She told them that people with brown eyes were superior to those with blue eyes, for reasons she made up. She told the kids that blue-eyed children weren't as good as brown-eyed or green-eyed ones. The episode features with new footage of the students, who are now adults. Why Did Jane Elliott Choose Eye Color To Divide Her Students? Words are the most powerful weapon devised by humankind. The demonstration has since been taught by generations of teachers to millions of kids across the country. 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. 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." I think it can. 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. You didnt understand the directions. Melanin, she said, is what causes intelligence. At first, she cooperated with me. The Brown Eyed / Blue Eyed Experiment. "Things are changing, and they're going to change rapidly if we're very, very fortunate," she said. Jane Elliot's 'The Blue Eyes and Brown Eyes Experiment' was unethical in that she created a segregated environment in a third grade classroom. More than 50 years after she first tried that exercise in her classroom, Elliott, now 87, said she sees much more work left to do to change racist attitudes. As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. 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. Malinda Whisenhunt? Blue-eyed children got five extra minutes of recess. 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. School ought to be about developing character, but most teachers won't touch that with a ten-foot pole.". Kellen Castineiras PSY Dr. Gail C. Flanagan February 6, 2022. . Elliott started to see her own white privilege, even her own ignorance. Website. Blue Eyed versus Brown Eyed Students Jane Elliott was not a psychologist, but she developed one of the most famously controversial exercises in 1968 by dividing students into a blue-eyed group and . a brown-eyed boy asked. She continued to conduct the exercise with her third graders. Select from the 0 categories from which you would like to receive articles. In this photograph from Sept. 13, 1965, Black children on their way to school in New York City pass by segregationists protesting integrated busing. Thats just the way blue-eyed kids were, Elliott told the students. She has made statements about the increase in hate crimes and racism in recent years. "We give our children shots to inoculate them against polio and smallpox, to protect them against the realities in the future. Outside, rows of corn stretched to the horizon. 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 . Jane would get invited to go to Timbuktu to give a speech. 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. Exploring your mind Blog about psychology and philosophy. "Black children grow up accustomed to such behavior, but white children, there's no way they could possibly understand it.