FRONTLINE: A Class Divided - 1 of 5
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCjDxAwfXV0If you missed class or want to see the video we watched in class, here it is. I posed that WORDS create WORLDS and that Jane Elliot's experiment with her third grade class shown in this documentary gives you a etic view of how this works around discrimination.
You should watch parts 1 and 2 on YouTube.
What were your thoughts?
PS Also here is the link to the Opinion in The Ticker on "Exclusive Diversity" at Baruch College published 9/24/07 by several editors on staff.
Posts
25 comments:
i agree with the idea that "WORDS create WORLDS" but i think that's true only to a certain extent. "blue eyes" and "brown eyes" were already in the children's vocabulary, but when Jane Elliot uses it in her experiment, she first describes the brown eyed kids in negative ways, then she did the same with blue eyed kids. i think it's more our surroundings (even more specifically, people around us) that influence our views and actions, creating our "worlds".
THAT VIDEO IS VERY FUNNY, YET IT EMPHASIZES THE FACT THAT PEOPLE FEEL SUPERIOR WHEN THEY HAVE AUTHORITY...THOSE THAT ARENT DOMINANT FEEL INFERIOR, AND LOSE SELF ESTEEM
JESSICA, DONT REPEAT WORDS THAT MS GAUNT SAYS...YOU'RE SUCH A TEACHERS PET
&i wouldn't talk about being a teacher's pet..
darnell, the kids didn't have any authority. they were given privileges one day and it was taken away the next, where's the authority in that? they felt superior after they were told that they were. *
The kids felt they had authority, though. their perceived superiority made them feel as if they had the authority to belittle kids they would otherwise treat normally. in that sense the authority was granted to them by the encouraging teacher and then taken away the next day by her change of heart.
It's crazy how little kids are so susceptible to things that are said to them, that is the reason why it is very important to teach young children to interact with other PEOPLE in ways that they would want to be interacted in, at an early age. The older a person gets, the harder it is to shape their opinions of the world and the people in it.
This is a great video that it shows that people starting from a kid to the eldest feel superior whenthey have theri authority an
d vice versa.throigh this video we culd see how meaningful it is.I also liked the fact how both of the groups were seperated and again they were put in both positions and how their thoughts have changed.And later their realization was done in perfect manner.This was a gppd example I would say which emphazised all everyone is equal.
This is a great video that it shows that people starting from a kid to the eldest feel superior whenthey have theri authority an
d vice versa.throigh this video we culd see how meaningful it is.I also liked the fact how both of the groups were seperated and again they were put in both positions and how their thoughts have changed.And later their realization was done in perfect manner.This was a gppd example I would say which emphazised all everyone is equal.
It is amazing how quickly superiority can be accepted by children for such a simple reason.That happens with adults as well..thats what racism is all about.. This should be taught in every classroom. Racism will remove.
Nicole Rosario
This was a very clever experiment. "Words" defineatly created "worlds". Elliots experiment of having blue eyed children be better one day and then brown eyed children be better the next proves how powerfullanguage is. Each child gained their superior power with Elliots words of the day. Its amazing how what someone tells you changes your entire image of yourself.
I think this is a great video that shows the way in which “words create worlds.” That is, just by Elliot telling the blue eyed kids that they would have power one day and the brown eyed children would have authority the next day; the kids were affected by Elliot’s words. The children never thought that they would take it so seriously because at first they all wanted to try out Elliot’s experiment. After they faced their “reality” and experienced how it felt to be discriminated against; they learned and felt the horrible feeling that those who do faced racism feel when they are discriminated against every day. I think this is a very good experiment for children because at a very young age they get to learn the way in which people are affected by racism and how they shouldn’t be racist against anyone. In addition, I think that this experiment should be tried on adults so the people who think they are “superior” see how it feels when they are the ones on the other side of the coin.
This video is living proof that we learn prejudice through enculturation. As soon as the teacher said that blue eyed people are better than brown eyed people the children acted accordingly, by teasing the brown eyed kids and crushing their self esteem. This video was really adorable but it was scary how these children are so impressionable because as soon as the teacher said that one group was better than the other no one really retaliated. One little boy questioned it but eventually accepted it as a fact when in fact he clearly believed otherwise.
I agree with what Jessica that "Words create worlds". I was surprise to see the students' reaction when Jane Elliot told them that Blue eyes were superior than Brown eyes, and vise versa. I was completely touched by this video; I still can not believe the way in which these third grade students expressed themselves about African Americans.
Iqra
Children are seen as innocent and when we hear these types of things from them its usually shocking because we would not except that. But the fact that they actually learned from their lesson about not to discriminate people based on their eye color or skin color is a good way to lead to prosperity and equality amoung the future generations. Jane Elliot, the teacher, was very smart in the way she taught these kids how to throw away those collars orin other words throw away the haterd which exist.
JianYun,Wang
I like this vedio because all kids learn that discriminate base on one's race or physical appearence is not true, this class gives them a lesson that all people are create equally. new generation should not inherit and follow their parent's prejudice, education is a good way to prevent future conflict between different races.we need to lead them into a right way when they are young age.
I believe that students can learn a lot more if they were in the situation of whether having the authority or not. Besides this video being funny, it gave students a chance to know how the lower authority people feel. This video also shows us that people who have the authority have more confidence.
Hanna Filipovich
This is an amazing way to teach children about racism. It is funny to watch how at first kids are mostly racist, but after they go through this lesson, they truly believe in equality of people of all races. Because they are so small, they took the fact that blue-eyed people are better so serious, that some in a moment became "better" than others. Teacher should do similar lesson for all small children because despite constitutional equality, many people still discriminate based on color.
I thought it was an interesting experiment on race and discrimination. Jane Elliot was very successful in conducting an experiment on how "words create world". It was an smart idea to have the experiment done on children rather than on adults because children react to things with true emotions and adults tend to hide their emotions.
I remember I learned in class that words are just symbols and it was the people who gave words meanings. I agree with Nicaury that in a sense, Jane Elliot's words gave authority to the the kids to treat the other kids with inferior because she said blue eyed people were better than brown eyed people one day and vice versa the next day.
I loved this video about prejudice. Do you remember the part where she asks everybody before the experiment about African Americans? The kids immediatly commented on them with typical stereotypes and names. This proves that prejudice exists and we should figure out where these kids learn it from. These kids know prejudice and when kids make fun of them for having different colored eyes they dont like it. Kids learn a valuable lesson n this class.
--Elvis
Raymond Jiang
I thought that the video was great. Not only for he amusing parts of the video, but because of how successful the experiment was. Jane Elliot thought outside the box to teacher children that racism is wrong. I always felt that we have to teach people that racism and discrimination is wrong from an early age. It would be interesting to see how this experiment would play out in a modern elementary school classroom.
i had seen this movie many times before and still find it interesting and even a little humorous with the children's expressions. it's a very controversial act that elliot did and today this would not be acceptable. but i think that this is a very effective way of teaching the lesson that needs to be taught. while illegal today, it was quite evident in the film that the children understood how bad they felt when they were "brown-eyed" and how the disadvantages that came with a physical feature were quite unfair.
d pierce
I've never seen this movie before but I thought that it was a good lesson to teach the kids about racism. Unlike most of the other material that they'll be taught in the higher grades, these kids will remember this for the rest of their lives. I also liked how the teacher had the students return to the school as adults to see the video. They get to see how they were as children and how they viewed racism compared to how they perceive it now. It shows them how much they've changed since then.
This video was very interesting, it showed me how people of different cultures could be divided by racism, this experiment was well done and proved to work easily. I see a lot of racism in the train going to school, since there are some many people with different ethnic backgrounds who try to separate themselves from other groups. Everyone is equal, people are not different and there shouldn't be any discrimination against each other because their different from other people.
Post a Comment