Blue Versus Brown Eyes

absolutely. it's a controlled situation for a limited time, and nothing teaches down to the atomic level like experience.
if more parents were willing to let their pampered poopsies actually experience life viscerally, including things that DON'T build the overhyped self-esteem we'd have a better society overall.
khairete
S.

It was an incredibly effective lesson in teaching about prejudice. Even just to watch it today demonstrates how easily we can be manipulated into viewing people as inherently inferior to us.

Yes, I'm all for these types of lessons. This experiment, which was very hands on and let the kids feel what something was really like, was exactly how kids should learn more often. It reminds me of the harsh and real nature of the After School Specials which dealt with tough topics in a way kids could empathize with in the 70's.

Now in today's, gentle, overprotective, hover-world, racism is rampant and people are more ignorant than ever. Sure, many are still teaching good lessons, and many have evolved, but huge masses of people are still dumb as rocks and hating their fellow humans based on skin color and ethnicity and religion as evidenced in the crowds gathered and chanting hate speech at the rallies for a certain popular presidential candidate.

But it think there still are lots of people who would approve of this lesson, and back then it was accepted because people did that kind of thing. Not everyone liked it, but it was before the science denying mindset had set in. People were less offended by ideas and experiments. But there are still people who do this type of thing too, and who would let their kids participate.

I so sick of parents trying to "protect" their children from life lessons that will make them better members of society.

Parents who pull their kids from sex-ed, discussion of a provocative book or film and experiments like Jane Elliott's are hurting us all.

Sadly, all too often, the one's who object have the kids who need it most.

The experiment had an objective, and the children were told of the objective at the end of the experiment. The lesson was about bias, prejudice, etc. So yes, I would let a teacher do that experiment in my child's class.

Why did the parents of yesteryear accept it? Because children back then were not overindulged and overprotected, and their parents were not fearful of them having to endure a moment's discomfort, unlike this generation of parents.

When I'm at a point in my teaching career where I can risk it, I would like to try it, actually. One of the nice things about working with the kind of kids I teach is that you don't typically have parents breathing down your neck and fussing over your every move with their precious snowflakes. For those who are surprised that this is even an issue -- I know of plenty of schools where I wouldn't dare do this experiment. The kids would go home wailing that their teacher had told them they were inferior and all hell would break loose.

@ Suz -- "pampered poopsies" - LOL!

When my son was a freshman in high school, his american history class was divided up randomly into 2 groups, not sure of the names, but I'll call them the Haves and Have Nots. The Haves were able to sit with their friends in class, given study guides, donuts and other treats. I forget what else. The Have Nots didn't get anything. I think it lasted 3 weeks. My son was a Have Not. I think it was a good exercise and got the kids all talking. My son is not big on talkin about details of his day, but during that time period there was a story pretty much every day.

I absoultely would allow my kids to partipcapte in that exercise. If I recall Oprah did a similar lesson with her audience.

Why do you think parents of today would object to this?

I wanted to respond to this question with some background, so I looked it up.

Personally, I would have no problem with this exercise. Short term/high stress is instructive for the most part without being destructive to the individual.

and I'll let Jane Elliot--who now performs this exercise with adults as well --with profound results-- (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/divided/etc...)
speak, lest we think she is someone messing with people just for her own kicks:

" Every time I do it I end up with a migraine headache. I absolutely hate this exercise. But more than I hate the exercise, I hate the necessity for something like this in the year 2002. And the worst of it is that the exercise is as necessary today as it was in 1968."

I recently saw a similar lesson that didn't focus on any type of physical appearance. The teacher promised no homework to the students who could make the most baskets when throwing wads of paper into a garbage can. If they couldn't make any, they had write an essay. The catch was that they had to throw from a seated position at their desk. Of course those in the front row had a distinct advantage--closer to the target, no interference in front of them. I think they also got a heavier weighted paper that flew better. The teacher followed it up with discussions about privilege and oppression.

As a teacher, I personally would not do anything that pointed out physical, ethnic, or religious differences. I agree that a lot of people seem to get offended over every little thing, but because I need to keep a positive relationship with parents for the sake of my students, I don't want to take the chance that I could make someone upset. Building strong, positive relationships with parents is hard enough already.

Yes I would, because to this day people still can't recognize the type of problems demonstrated and need to learn the lesson.

In a heartbeat! It's still a great lesson on discrimination.

Heck YEAH I would allow it.
When my son was in kindergarten Obama was running for president for his first term. My son came home and was telling me that they were talking about it in his class and one of the little boys raised his hands and said, "My parents say that a black man will never run this country." Woah. Sat down with my son and had a talk about how that was NOT true and a black man would run this country which would open the door to other races and sexes. A lesson like this could break the circle of racism. make a child think!
Maybe a lesson like that would be so impactful to children. Learning how awful it could be to be judged based on something you can not control. Like eye color or skin pigmentation.
I am confused as to why you think parents WOULDN'T allow it? I think it's great.
L.
EDITED - Have you watched the Oprah episode where Jane Elliot comes on and does this expirement with the audience? Fascinating. Within a short amount of time the brown eyed people (who were the "good guys" so to speak) started turning on the blue eyed! How rude the blue eyes were and the brown eyes were better. It was pretty startling to see...in ADULTS!

What makes you think we're not all experimented on now?
What makes you think we have any say about it or are even aware of it?
We all perceive differences - we're not made by cookie cutters and we don't look or behave alike.
Everyone has different ideas about what is better or what is progress.
Social engineering occurs every day.
No Child Left Behind sounds great on paper - but it truly sucks rocks if you happen to be gifted.

If I knew about it, yes.

Because it's a very clear demonstration of discrimination and extremism and psychology.

I STILL remember this after school special that touched on the issue:
http://www.tv.com/shows/the-abc-afterschool-special/the-w...

I thought this was an excellent exercise to teach about racism. Why would anyone not allow their child to participate?

I would definitely allow it. If it were allowed today, kids would actually learn empathy. Imagine that!