A Class Divided: Jane Elliott's Experiment on Racism in a Third Grade Classroom, Schemes and Mind Maps of Biological Psychology

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Running Head: A CLASS DIVIDED 1970 (^)! 1

A Class Divided 1970 Whitney CSHS: Psych II 24 November 2013

Abstract This research paper includes research, results, and summary of the psychological experiment called “A Class Divided” that Jane Elliott conducts on her third grade class. Elliott’s ingenious experiment shows how innocent and intelligent third graders can change into nasty and discriminating children in one day. After giving her class a short lesson on racism and how it is viewed by the average American citizen, Elliot introduced an activity to her students to teach them more about racism. Instead of dividing the children based on the color of their skin, Elliot separated the blue-eyed children from the brown-eyed children, stating that the blue-eyed children are dominant. At first, the blue-eyed people defended the brown-eyed people, denying their superiority. Over time, the class slowly fails to tolerate one another. Elliot successfully convinces her students of their place in hierarchy and proves that racism can be instilled in anyone for any difference.

talking about the meaning of National Brotherhood Week and what it means to “treat everyone as though he was your brother” (Peters, 1985). However, she changed the direction of the conversation when she began discussing how African Americans and Native Americans were not treated like brothers. To begin the exercise with her class, Elliott segregates the brown eyed children from the blue eyed children, insisting that they wouldn’t know how it felt to be treated to be judged by the color of your skin. She quickly establishes the blue eyed children’s superiority over the brown eyed children, stating that “the blue eyed people are the better than brown eyed people” (Peters, 1985). She also gives the blue eyed children special treatment by giving them five extra minutes at recess, allowing them to drink from the drinking fountain, and not allowing the brown eyed people to play with them. She also gives them navy blue pieces of cloth to tie around their collars so that they are easily distinguishable from the blue eyed people. Throughout the day, she remarks on the lack of intelligence and superiority of the brown eyed people. This form of ridiculing not only puts unsure expressions on the faces of her students, but also encouraged the blue eyed people to join in this unfair treatment. In fact, a student suggests that Mrs. Elliot can use a ruler “for when the brown eyed people get out of hand” (Peters, 1985). During lunch, Elliot lets the blue eyed people go first for lunch and does not allow the brown eyed people to go back for seconds. This experimental lesson essentially brainwashed her students into conforming to the prejudice that exists in society. Her innocent students quickly established their superiority in the classroom environment that she had created, treating those that were different as if they were “sub-human” and acting in a ways that was “so arrogant, so condescending, and so un-godly” (Peters, 1985).

The Results This experiments shows that prejudice and racism can be instilled in the minds of even the most innocent people. This prejudice is not only based on differing skin colors, but for differences that might set someone apart from the norm such as eye color. The brown eyed people realized that “when [they] were down on the bottom, it [felt] like everything bad was happening to [them]” (Peters, 1985). The children who were mistreated noticed differences in behavior from even their best friends. Two boys even got in a fight because one boy “called [the other] names, so [he] hit him in the gut” (Peters, 1985). When engaged in arguments, the blue eyed people spoke to the brown eyed people with a tone of mockery, making fun of them for their eye color. As the day progressed, brown eyed children even began to believe the accusations and criticisms that had been made against them. The next day, Elliott declared that brown eyed people were better than blue eyed people. This not only gave blue eyed people a chance to experience the same oppression that the others had the day before, but allowed brown eyed people to thrive in an environment where they were viewed as superiors. At some point during the two-day experiment, both the brown eyed and blue eyed children get to experience that discrimination “is not funny… not fun… not pleasant” (Peters, 1985). They felt “like a dog on a leash… like you’re chaining [someone] up into prison and you’re throwing the key away” (Peters, 1985). In a time span of two days, Elliott “watched what had been marvelous, cooperative, wonderful, thoughtful children turn into nasty, vicious, discriminating little third graders” (Elliott, 1970, Peters, 1985). She “learned more from the superior children… than [she] did from the people that were considered inferior because their personalities changed even more

judge people on what’s on the inside and not the outside,” a lesson that they will carry with them for the rest of their lives” (Peters, 1985).

References Elliott, J. (Performer) (1970). Eye of the storm [Web]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=FjSHOaugO- Peters, W. (Producer) (1985). A class divided [Web]. Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/ pages/frontline/shows/divided/