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

", Steve Harnack, 62, served as the elementary school principal beginning in 1977. In this scenario, students are told brown-eyed people . She wanted them to understand what discrimination felt like. 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. Elliott created the blue-eyes/brown-eyes classroom exercise in 1968 to teach students about racism. And our number two freedom is the freedom to deny that were ignorant., I want every white person in this room who would be happy to be treated as this society in general treats our citizens, our black citizens, if you, as a white person, would be happy to receive the same treatment that our black citizens do in this society, please stand. (Byrnes & Kiger, 1992). One student answers, since the day I was born. Throughout the entire experiment, Elliott leads frank conversations about race and discrimination. The secretary said the south side of the building was closed, something about waxing the hallways. The act of treating students differently was obviously a metaphor for the social decisions made on a larger level. Focusing on ethics the experiment violated some of the principles and codes of conduct established by the American Psychological Association. Stephen G. Bloom does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment. They are steeped in centuries of economic deprivation and cultural appropriation. Articles and opinions on happiness, fear and other aspects of human psychology. 2012 2023 . When you read about this experiment, its hard not to question labels. Lasting Impact of Blue Eyes Brown Eyes Experiment, Words are the most powerful weapon devised by humankind. The killing of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, was a seismic event, a turning point that compelled many Americans to do something and do it with urgency. Elliott started to see her own white privilege, even her own ignorance. . In present society, psychological experiments are guided by honesty, truthfulness, and accuracy. he asked. Mental Floss, 4. 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. I think it can. The people of riceville did not exactly welcome Elliott home from New York with a hayride. Is your time best spent reading someone elses essay? You should be happy! ", Elliott defends her work as a mother defends her child. Nobodys standing here. 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 . The minimal group paradigm has shaped an entire methodology in social psychology. 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 are cleaner and they are smarter.". This bibliography was generated on Cite This For Me on Monday, March 7, 2016. She asks them if they have ever faced treatment like the type that blue-eyed people would experience in the following two and a half hours. Jane Elliott and Dr. On April 5 1968 the day after the death of Martin Luther King Jr Elliott decided to show her students how easy it was to be influenced by racism. The textbook publisher McGraw-Hill has listed her on a timeline of key educators, along with Confucius, Plato, Aristotle, Horace Mann, Booker T. Washington, Maria Montessori and 23 others. Melanin, she said, is what causes intelligence. The "invisible knapsack" is an analogy for a set of invisible and not widely talked about privileges that white people possess in the society. She also assumed that none of the children had interacted with black people and that the only place they could have seen them is on television. Elliott rattled off the rules for the day, saying blue-eyed kids had to use paper cups if they drank from the water fountain. Jane Elliots work and experiences have made her an authority on education and anti-racism. 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. "Well, what do you expect from him, Mrs. Elliott," a brown-eyed student said as a blue-eyed student got an arithmetic problem wrong. You must get the parents first. Elliott reminded them that the reason for the lesson was the King assassination, and she asked them to write down what they had learned. Before she could answer, another boy piped up: "If she didn't have blue eyes, she'd be the principal or the superintendent.". Three sections were selected to be administered the simulation . Blue Eyes, Brown Eyes 1968 - Jane Elliot, grade school teacher in Iowa conducted a classroom experiment to test whether racism was a learned characteristic Blue Eyes, Brown Eyes - an experiment to "create racism" Jane Elliot divided her 4th grade class into two groups based on eye color The Brown eyed group were told they were superior due . "We are repeating the blue-eyed/brown-eyed exercise on a daily basis.". Kids on top would tease the children who were deemed as the inferior group. There were more brown-eyed students in the room. She appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show five times. 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. With a couple of basic and arbitrary examples, Elliott made the case that brown-eyed people were better. While Jane Elliot's experiment makes several assumptions, it also has some ethical concerns. Why Did Jane Elliott Choose Eye Color To Divide Her Students? Elliott separated her all-white class of students into two groups: blue-eyed children and brown-eyed children. Professor Jane Elliott performed a group experiment with her students that they would never forget. She gave all of the students simple spelling and math tests two weeks before the exercise, on the days of the exercise, and after the exercise. The episode features with new footage of the students, who are now adults. On the first day, the blue-eyed students were informed that they were genetically inferior to the brown-eyed students. The selection was based on the color of the eye for each group. SpeedyPaper website, please click below to request its removal: Liked this essay sample but need an original one? Brown-eyed people. Jane Elliott's experiment. ", Then, the inevitable: "Hey, Mrs. Elliott, how come you're the teacher if you've got blue eyes?" Sign up for Politics Weekly.]. In this 1998 photograph, former Iowa teacher Jane Elliott, center, speaks with two Augsburg University . Why do researchers use correlational studies? She told them that people with brown eyes were better than people with blue eyes. Though Jane's actions were justifiable because she was not a psychologist, her experiment cannot be replicated in the present society. She attended a oneroom rural schoolhouse.Today, at 72, Elliott, who has short white hair, a penetrating gaze and no-nonsense demeanor, shows no signs of slowing. It was the day after Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated in 1968 that Elliott ran her first "Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes" exercise in her Riceville, Iowa classroom. Students in the inferior groups were more likely to get a worse score. Role Theory: Expectations, Identities, and Behaviors. This is the phrase that inspired one of the most well-known experiments in education. I was stunned. 10 Psychological Experiments That Could Never Happen Today. Jane Elliot's experiment involves cheating and intentional misinterpretation of facts. They were also relevant in the 1950s when Elliott first began this work. Jane Elliott's Blue-Eyed versus Brown-Eyed Students experiment was conducted to determine whether racism was a learned characteristic. "That's what I tried to teach, and that's what drove the other teachers crazy. That spring morning 37 years ago, the blue-eyed children were set apart from the children with brown or green eyes. The people and cultures already present in a place often feel threatened by new immigrants. She told the students that the brown-eyed children were inferior and repeated the experiment. In the wake of the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., Elliott developed a simple exercise that explored the nature of racism and prejudice.. Elliott's method for exploring racism in the context of an all-white classroom consisted of dividing her students into two groups on the basis of eye color, blue or brown (those with other eye colors were assigned to the group . Thats just the way blue-eyed kids were, Elliott told the students. The Blue Eyes and Brown Eyes Experiment. Stripping away the veneer of the experiment, what was left had nothing to do with race. If brown-eyed children made a mistake, Elliott would call out the mistake and attribute it to the students brown eyes. Two students even got into a physical altercation. In the case of any doubt, it's best to consult a trusted specialist. The Blue-Eyes, Brown-Eyes Experiment. Thousands of educators across the United States folded the experiment into their curriculums. Everyone's tired of her. . The smell of the crops and loam and topsoil and manure wafted though the open door. At her lunch break that day in the teacher's lounge, she told her colleagues about the exercise. One teacher ended up displaying the same bigotry Elliott had spent the morning trying to fight. Two education professors in England, Ivor F. Goodson and Pat Sikes, suggest that Elliott's experiment was unethical because the participants weren't informed of its real purpose beforehand. You give them something nice and they just wreck it." Professor of Journalism, University of Iowa. January 1, 2003. "Hey, Mrs. Elliott," Steven yelled as he slung his books on his desk. one girl asked. One caller complained that white children would not be able to handle the exercise and would be seriously damaged by the exercise. Then tell them that . Jane Elliott on The Tonight Show on May 31, 1968. 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. The more melanin, the darker the person's eyesand the smarter the person. Looking back, I think part of the problem was that, like the residents of other small midwestern towns I've covered, many in Riceville felt that calling attention to oneself was poor manners, and that Elliott had shone a bright light not just on herself but on Riceville; people all over the United States would think Riceville was full of bigots. Essay Sample: Ethical Concerns in Jane Elliot's Experiment. He printed them under the headline "How Discrimination Feels." She has made statements about the increase in hate crimes and racism in recent years. Separate the class into two halves - those with blue eyes and those with brown. 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. Then a picture was taken to remember. What Was The Blue Eyes Brown Eyes Experiment? Today, increased migration means more opportunities for people from different backgrounds to interact with each other, which is often a source of conflict. Some residents were furious. "It's the same thing over and over again," Cross says. Jane Elliott's Blue Eyes and Brown Eyes experiment was a turning point in social psychology. "Not one of them reprimanded her for that or even corrected her. The results showed a reversal effect in which the blue-eyed students showed signs of inferiority and low self-esteem. APA principles acknowledge that individuals rights to privacy, self-determination, and confidentiality is paramount to all psychological activities. Blue eyes, brown eyes: What Jane Elliott's famous experiment says about race 50 years on. As a journalism professor and author of a book on race that spans more than 50 years, Ive watched these developments with great concern. "Would you like to come on the show?" According to the article is Jane Elliot's experiment to small degree effective. Elliott, who is white, separated the students into two groupsthose with blue eyes and those with brown eyes. Issues such as the right to know, the right to privacy, and informed consent. She split the class in two categories, according to eye color, and told the children that one group was superior to the others. At the time, she was a third-grade . If you are the original author of this essay and no longer wish to have it published on the Jane Elliott's experiment of dividing an otherwise homogenous group of school kids by their eye color.