Kelsey Hoppel
Educational Psychology
Ramirez
3/30/14

“A Class Divided Video”

The purpose of this experiment that Ms. Elliot conducted is to show her students in her third grade class what discrimination felt like. Discrimination was so prevalent in the time that this experiment was conducted. Ms. Elliot was trying to start small and do any little possible thing in order to slowly help change what was so wrong in the world. The way she expressed her lesson had an extremely real life feel to what it was like to be discriminated against. One day Ms. Elliot led her third grade class to believe that blue eyed people were better than brown eyed people. The next day she made it the other way around so that everyone in the class could experience what discrimination felt like. She did this to show her students how ugly and hateful discrimination actually is. The first day, when blue eyed people were better than brown eyed people, the blue eyed students began to feel powerful and act down on the brown eyed students in their class. There were incidents where a blue eyed student that had never been hurtful or hateful to other students suddenly began to talk bad about other students. The blue eyed students went on an emotional high of power and authority thinking they were the best and better than brown eyed people. On the other hand, the brown eyed people felt belittled and felt that everything “bad” was happening to them. They felt that they were getting their best friends taken away from them. The students understood the lesson Ms. Elliot was teaching them when she explained herself once the experiment was over. Ms. Elliot sat the entire class down and explained to them the lesson she was trying to teach them. The students believed that discrimination was a horrible thing. The students took into consideration about how it made them feel when they were the lesser of the two. The students absolutely hated how they were treated which helped them understand that discrimination is not okay. They knew that they had turned into vicious, nasty, and discriminating children, and didn’t want to stay or be that way. Ms. Elliot did the same thing with the adult participants only this time she was more intense with the teasing and mistreatment of the people that were necessarily “bad.” For the most part the adults learned the same lessons as the children. They learned how it feels to actually be discriminated against and no one likes that feeling. They learned to take others feelings into account after feeling horrible themselves while it was happening to them. They then understood that no one likes to be treated or teased that way. After the experiment they understood what it was like to be the minority. They didn’t like it at all and that helps them realize not to do it to others. During the experiment at times the adults felt the same as the students and then at times felt different than the students. Ms. Elliot made the adults so mad that one lady said with all the hostility she had that she could just let it all out on them, meaning the opposite eye color people than she was. Another lady stated that she hated the teacher for what she was putting them through. She said that no one liked to be teased or treated in this matter and that she shouldn’t do this. Many of the adults mimicked the children's responses as to where someone was your best friend one day and then your enemy the next just because of this experiment. They said that it brings out the worst in you just as the students had discovered. Some adults mentioned that everyone needs a program like this in order to teach that discrimination is not right. The learned that there are no physical barriers, but that the problem was just the way the people think. They learned that discrimination makes a person feel worthless and on the bottom and less than everyone else. They learned that it was downright horrible and that it cause many negative feelings toward one another, even if there was no problem between two people before. There is a quote that says, “Everyone suffers discrimination. You have to learn to cope with it.” Everyone may suffer from discrimination at one point in there lives, but it would be best just to try and eliminate discrimination as a whole. The white adults did not respond very well to discrimination. They did not want it done to them at all. They were getting angry and raging with frustration. They were outward expressing their thoughts toward Ms. Elliot and Ms. Elliot would give it right back to them treating them as if they were horrible people. One lady wanted Ms. Elliot to wear the collar so she could experience what it was like and what she was putting them through. Many of the adults were outright rude and disturbing. One main thing that stood out to me was seeing how the students scores and concentration would drastically go down when they were on the bottom and being discriminated against. They were so worked up about it, thinking they were dumb and stupid because thats what was being said about them. One of the students said that they couldn’t concentrate on their work because all they could think about was the collars around their neck and what it meant. Also, when the children were on top, their scores got better and maintained better after the experiment. Being on top gave them confidence to do better and to believe that they were better.