Jane Elliott

By: Kristin Kuckelman

What She Did?

Jane Elliott was a teacher in a small all white town, she taught a lesson to her class on discrimination by dividing her class by eye color blue and brown On day 1: blue-eyed children were told they were smarter, nicer, neater, and better than those with brown eyes. Elliott allowed them privileges such as a taking a longer recess and being first in the lunch line. While the brown-eyed children had to wear arm bands and were ridiculed by Elliott. On day 2: the roles were reversed and the brown-eyed children became the dominate group

Students ended up forming to their groups students who were told they were inferior preformed poorly on activities in class, and students who were superior became mean and began discriminating the other children

She repeated this exercise with other classes taught students about the impact

YouTube video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXJNo_2dhmk

What She Did?

"I watched what had been marvelous, cooperative, wonderful, thoughtful children turn into nasty, vicious, discriminating little third-graders in a space of fifteen minutes. This exercise "created a microcosm of society in a thirdgrade classroom.
"The kids said over and over, 'We're kind of like a family now.' They found out how to hurt one another and they found out how it feels to be hurt in that way and they refuse to hurt one another in that way again."

Reaction
I believe that Elliott took a tremendous risk by teaching this lesson in her classroom. During the 1960s, many people were racist and probably didnt agree with teaching students this in a public school. I also think that it is amazing how the findings of this exercise was that the students who were superior became me and began discriminating the other children.

Impact During Her Lifetime

"After you do this exercise, when the debriefing starts, when the pain is over and they're all back together, you find out how society could be if we really believed all this stuff that we preach, if we really acted that way, you could feel as good about one another as those kids feel about one another after this exercise is over. You create instant cousins, I think Jane Elliott created a way to simulate how it feels to be discriminated back in the 1960s when discrimination was very prevalent

Impact - Today
Jane Elliotts method of teaching discrimination has been used today In Frontlines, "A Class Divided, Elliott takes her exercise to employees of the Iowa prison system During a daylong workshop she teaches the same lesson to the adults. Their reactions to the blue-eye, brown-eye exercise are similar to those of the children

So, this exercise could be used in classrooms or other adult situations today.

Connections
Readings
Connects with Deculturalization and the Struggle for Equality because after reading the chapter on African American segregation, we gain insight on Americas society during Elliott's time

Guiding questions
What is power?
This lesson teaches students that they have the power to create these social situations (create or destroy)

What is the teachers role?

Taught life lesson, made life lasting impressions

What is the purpose of education?

Making good citizens Schooling

Personal experience
I think Elliotts lesson, or a variation of it could be very beneficial in my future classroom to teach students the impact of discrimination

Works Cited
PBS. (2012). A Class Forgotten. pbs.org. Retrieved February 18, 2013, from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/di vided/etc/synopsis.htm55 Elliott, J. (2006, December 9). An unforgettable lesson. Galegroup.com. Retrieved February 18, 2013, fromhttp://find.galegroup.com.er.lib.kstate.edu/grnr/infomark.do