A Class Divided
A Class Divided
This is a video that tells a story on racial issues and stereotyping. In 1968 Martin
Luther King was assassinated. A third grade teacher by the name of Jane Elliott noticed
immediately that her children in the classroom, started to outwardly show their
frustration. Ms. Elliott performed and recorded an exercise related to racial profiling.
Approximately 13 years later, the third grade children were brought back together to
watch the video again. This was to find out how the experiment of the lesson of
discrimination was effective in the long term stand.
During this video, she used several techniques and examples of discrimination.
She conducted this experiment by splitting up the children according to their eye color,
the brown eyed children and the blue eyed children. She said that the blue eyed children
were superior to the brown eyed children. She implemented rules for the brown eyed
children. Things like, the blue eyed children could play 15 minutes longer than the brown
eyed children and the brown eyed people could only drink out of paper cups and not be
allowed to drink from the fountain. She stereotyped the brown eyed children such as, they
were dumber than blue eyed children, and the brown eyed children were bad people. The
children instantly started to change their behavior to the inferior children.
The next day Ms. Elliott changed the roles. The blue eyed children were now the
inferior and the brown eyed children were now the superior. She stated the brown eyed
children were now smarter than the blue eyed children.
After talking to all of the children after the experiment, the children did not like
the treatment and did understand the importance of prejudice. When the now adults came
together to watch the video, they still felt the same way they did as a third grader. They
spoke of how it helped to choose their spouse or significant other. Also how it helped to
This is a video that tells a story on racial issues and stereotyping. In 1968 Martin
Luther King was assassinated. A third grade teacher by the name of Jane Elliott noticed
immediately that her children in the classroom, started to outwardly show their
frustration. Ms. Elliott performed and recorded an exercise related to racial profiling.
Approximately 13 years later, the third grade children were brought back together to
watch the video again. This was to find out how the experiment of the lesson of
discrimination was effective in the long term stand.
During this video, she used several techniques and examples of discrimination.
She conducted this experiment by splitting up the children according to their eye color,
the brown eyed children and the blue eyed children. She said that the blue eyed children
were superior to the brown eyed children. She implemented rules for the brown eyed
children. Things like, the blue eyed children could play 15 minutes longer than the brown
eyed children and the brown eyed people could only drink out of paper cups and not be
allowed to drink from the fountain. She stereotyped the brown eyed children such as, they
were dumber than blue eyed children, and the brown eyed children were bad people. The
children instantly started to change their behavior to the inferior children.
The next day Ms. Elliott changed the roles. The blue eyed children were now the
inferior and the brown eyed children were now the superior. She stated the brown eyed
children were now smarter than the blue eyed children.
After talking to all of the children after the experiment, the children did not like
the treatment and did understand the importance of prejudice. When the now adults came
together to watch the video, they still felt the same way they did as a third grader. They
spoke of how it helped to choose their spouse or significant other. Also how it helped to