Monday, January 10, 2011
Question F- The Blue-Eyed/Brown-Eyed Experiment
Jane Elliott’s experiment did what many other methods of teacher could not do. It taught young white children in the 60s what it was like to be of color. The children had been just repeating the racist ideas that they had heard from parents and other adults. They were not getting it. Elliott may have gone a little overboard with making the kids wear collars to show they were in the subordinate group. Young children being thrown into acts of segregation may not be the best thing to do morally yet it is an effective tool to prove your point. These kids supposedly had never seen a black person before so there was no way for them to understand what it is like to be oppressed. Some of the things Elliott did were cruel but she did not physically harm anyone. The students just realized what it was like when they couldn’t drink out of the same water fountain as some of their friends.
Ethically, this type of thing just wouldn’t happen today with the way society is. However, times were different then. I’m sure that there was still some harsh punishment at school, even Catholic schools, where kids were physically punished. Times were different then and teachers got away with a lot more than today so, ethically, what Elliott did was not that bad. Educationally, I basically agree with what she did. It effectively taught the children. Parents were just feeding their kids racist ideas which was doing more harm than good. She also did very good things for social change because if she didn’t show the kids how bad it felt to be segregated they would think it was acceptable to treat people like that. I think once kids saw that if you were of color you weren’t necessarily dumb but you can be treated that way. They got a taste of what being without white privilege was all about and I think that is a good thing. It shouldn’t be used universally but I believe she handled it correctly.
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I think that it would be beneficial for her to include the childrens parents in this excercise. Although she made a lot of head way with the children, there parents could have easily undone that.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you alot, however dont you think it was a little harsh for her to talk down to a select few of her students at time. If i were a 3rd grader that would hurt my feelings alot if a teacher said oh well only some of you are the best. Also something to think about: Isnt it a little strange how quickly groups of friends were dropped just because of the collars around their necks? if she really wanted to go even further into the experiment, she could have taught her students that its ok to talk to them and be nice to them, because they didnt do anything wrong. She could have taken the lesson one step further. I dont know just something to think about
ReplyDeleteI agree with you completely. I think that it should not be used as it hurts the kids, but I am very happy that she was able to show the children she did straight up about racism and equality. I agree with Miranda that it would have been nice to include the parents in this exercise.
ReplyDelete@ miranda
ReplyDeleteI agree that parents should be a major part in this process, yet how do you get the parents to cooperate?
Parents are one of the most influential people in a child's life- it is too bad their opionions get to children before children can see a wider range of ideas.
I also agree that parents should be involved yet Joanie makes a good point. Parents may not cooperate. They are the main contributors to how a child thinks early in their lives. If a child thinks black people are uneducated, that is somewhat of a reflection of his or her parents.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the experiment helped the students learn about segregation but it definitely could have messed these kids up by making them wear collars and being viewed as a subordinate group. I also agree that this wouldn't happen in society today because if it did the teacher would most likely be fired.
ReplyDeleteI agree that it is not possible to do such experiment today with young kids.I don't know but i didn't like the way how she taught kids to discriminate their friends based on physical character just to prove her point. May be in that early age kids didn't know how the black people were treated around since that was such a small town. Also kids tender mind can get confused if they see opposite behavior of their teacher and parents.
ReplyDelete@ miranda and joanielee I agree that the parents maybe should have been notified, but then I wonder...would they have allowed their children to be put in a position of having to deal with anything race related in the 60's. I am a big believer of solving problems. I do not believe that people need to tip toe around things because it makes them feel uneasy. i believe that people should attack a problem head on. For example, I hate hate hate doing squats when I exercise, but they strengthen my legs so I do them first. I attack them head on and get them done. Like Elliot I believe we need to attack this problem head on and without any explanation. If the end result is equality then we just need to get it done.
ReplyDeleteYou all make some wonderful points. I also really enjoyed reading this post. I do not think that parents would have agreed to this exercise at that point in time, however, I do think that this exercise was very helpful to other people in understanding racism and how it works.. but I think there were some gaps in the experiment and there should have been some sort of permission slip.
ReplyDeleteInteresting post and comments--you all make some great observations on differing sides of the debate. I was impressed to see the students as adults and to see what an impact their experiment had on them in terms of their views on race. As a teacher, I must give a hat tip to Elliott for this impact upon her students' lives, even as I acknowledge her methods as controversial.
ReplyDelete