The blue eye brown eye experiment

~ Students~

Below are the questions based on the

Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes Video.

Please answer all of them.

(You may wish to print out these questions for quick reference for when you go to write your paper)

Students: please read all of the following questions. Think about what is being asked in each question. Then formulate in your mind what your answers to those questions would be.

ER/SR Evaluate the significance of how Elliott used this exercise to teach the meaning of brotherhood and moral/ethical reasoning for overcoming stereotypes and relating to people who are different.

CT/TR Discuss your overall reaction to “A Class Divided.” Respond to this thinking routine:

Before viewing “A Class Divided” I Used to Think . . .

After viewing “But Now I think . . . “

This change of mind is because? . . .

SD Have you ever personally experienced discrimination? If so, what were the circumstances? How did you cope with stress?

SR If not, what will you do in the future when you see or experience discrimination in action?

ER/SR Notice about how quickly the children fell into their assigned roles. What does this say about the ease of learning to become prejudice?

CT/ER Participants in this exercise are only exposed to discrimination for a relatively short amount of time. Relate their attitudes and behavior after just a short amount of time to that of minority group members in our society who are exposed to a lifetime of discrimination.

CT/ER Select a marginalized, disenfranchised or minority group of people and identify the parallels between the comments and actions made by the brown eyed children on the first day and the comments and actions of the marginalized, disenfranchised or minority group you selected.

Jane Elliot in her famous exercise that people practice based on the eye colour and skin colour to treat others differently. She wanted to prove that how difficult it would be for someone to be in a place where everyone ill-treat them and bully them in order to show the world that racism hurts. It was a time that blue eyed people were promoting that they were the superior race both physically and intellectually but she wanted to prove otherwise. So she chose people and made them sit according to their eye colour such as blue, brown. She deliberately allowed others to bully the blue eyed people and made them cry and frustrated. She did it to make the world understand how hard it is to be racially abused and bullied.

Today this video or the exercise itself has a lot of implications as the world has become a village where people from different races and ethnicities live together in harmony. We also witness occasional disturbances in terms of racism but there is also an institutionalized racism that is practised by the white patriots who run the governments in some countries. Equality is the only word that should govern not just humanity but the entire earth and its creations.

1,414 answers

1. Th actions from an ethical perspective were not fair as they would impact psyche of children who were at a young an impressionable age, such habits and actions and their consequent affects are generally internalized for the long run.

2. One of the main privileges that was taken away was going an drinking from the water fountain, and mingling with the apparent superior crowd. They were asked to sit further behind in the classroom setting than in the front.

3. Blue eyed children were given all those privileges that the brown eyes children were denied of, and they ere given added benefits of extra food, extra time for recess and more play time.

4. the Blue eyed pupils boasted regarding their marks and grades with respect to the assessments that were given to them on which they faired better and hence showed their apparent intellectual superiority.

5. Prejudice is not based on evidence, it is created on the basis of an isolated factor, which is sadly generalized and superimposed upon an entire population of the given sect.

6. One of the most common prejudice can be seen amongst the various religious groups, especially against those of the islamic faith.

7. It showed them the reason for Martin Luther Kings sad demise and the reason for his initial struggle.

8. Pupils though that prejudices happens if someone comes along and tells them they have more rights than someones due to the virtue of a certain quality.

9. Prejudice can be created easily, as it spreads like wildfire and on the basis of word of mouth, which goes on to be ingrained in to people minds especially if they are not at a disposition. But, to break a prejudice, paradoxically, requires empirical observation and encounters which is seldom possible, and people are generally satisfied with the social pedestal they have been bestowed which gives them a sense of entitlement they'd rather not let go. It is easier to be ignorant.

10. More cultural programs are required in order to subject people through various cultures and break certain stereotypes that have been formulated by false attributions.Cultures should be taught about.

11. We can try not to be dogmatic in our views regarding other cultures and try to engage in critical thinking in order to break through the glass cielling affect that we create on the basis of 'facts' that are anything but facts.

Jane Elliot in her famous exercise that people practice based on the eye colour and skin colour to treat others differently. She wanted to prove that how difficult it would be for someone to be in a place where everyone ill-treat them and bully them in order to show the world that racism hurts. It was a time that blue eyed people were promoting that they were the superior race both physically and intellectually but she wanted to prove otherwise. So she chose people and made them sit according to their eye colour such as blue, brown. She deliberately allowed others to bully the blue eyed people and made them cry and frustrated. She did it to make the world understand how hard it is to be racially abused and bullied.

Today this video or the exercise itself has a lot of implications as the world has become a village where people from different races and ethnicities live together in harmony. We also witness occasional disturbances in terms of racism but there is also an institutionalized racism that is practised by the white patriots who run the governments in some countries. Equality is the only word that should govern not just humanity but the entire earth and its creations.

The experiment conducted is somewhere in retro period. We can see that the teacher has got considerable influence on children. Initially she says that Blue eyed children are better and they would be in favour, this makes brown eyed children go very uneasy and later she says that brown eyed children are better than blue eyed. This experiment was conducted to tell children that colour of people face, eyes etc does not makes any difference in their rights.

The experiment was conducted at the right age where kids are 8-9 year old and they start knowing the world and hence it is well established in their minds. The result was good where kids got to know the impact of differentiation.

Today apart from teacher, management of school, parents also play a role in children's education. And hence conducting such an experiment would have caused problem to teacher. Moreover there is not much differentiation like earlier days. People are not discriminated based on their colour. Had the teacher would have conducted such an experiment today, then kids would have gone home complaining to their parents. And the parents would have come running to school management, principal as such differentiation is taking place. This would risked teacher's job.

Today there are strict laws about discrimination, anybody seeing or caught in discrimination such as gender, race, religion etc are fined heavily be it company, any school etc.

Jane Elliot’s brown eye/blue eye: class division video was interesting to watch. Jane was a teacher in the 60’s who chose to do a lesson on discrimination a little different than textbook style. She divided the class into brown eyes vs blue eyed and let one group be dominate of the other, each for a day. When starting this experiment, I do not believe that Jane thought she classroom of third graders when turn against one another so quickly. While watching this video I watched these children discriminate against one another only because they were told they were dominate because of eye color. Jane watched these children bully one another, she watched how their social status affected their school work and how this dominance changed each child into completely different people. Jane was just as shocked as I was when seeing the children segregate themselves and choose to belittle the colored eyed people that were less than that day. As scary as it seems, I believe that if this was done again today, in a classroom full of third graders, the results would still be the same. Discrimination is still alive and well, people still believe they are better than others based on skin color, economic status, gender or sexual orientation. People still hold these beliefs that these certain values and ways of life have a right and wrong choice, if we are not all the same then one must be dominant. Jane used this lesson to show her children the importance of acceptance and what discrimination is exactly.

This experiment I believe was great for the kids at the time, they built acceptance and self-awareness. At the end of the video the children, who were now adults, got to talk about how that video changed their views on racism and discrimination. The classmates grew up and understood that although someone is different, in whatever way, they should never discriminate against this person. The experiment showed them what is was like to be on both ends of discrimination, showing these children what it feels like to be segregated and taunted. As a future counselor and mother, I hope to work against discrimination and prejudice; although one cannot stop it, I an at least put my foot down when discrimination or prejudice occurs.