A Class Divided 1

Running head: A CLASS DIVIDED

A Class Divided

Marilyn Field

Adult Psychopathology and Treatment

A Class Divided 2

Abstract

Jane Elliott's experiment of dividing an otherwise homogenous group of school kids by

their eye color. The episode features with new footage of the students, who are now adults. The

video documents Jane Elliot’s initiation of an exercise with her class to teach them about

discrimination by separating the class into blue-eyed and brown-eyed pupils and treating one

group more favorably than the other. Jane Elliot’s commitment to her cause is revealed as she

continued her work with a group of prison employees participating in the same type of exercise.

An analysis is documented in effort to explain the details of the feature and how it is beneficial to

the field of professional psychology.

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A Class Divided

When the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. was murdered in April 1968, Jane Elliott

taught her third-grade class a daring lesson in discrimination. King had been the hero of the

month in February for the third grade class. Elliot, an internationally known teacher, lecturer,

diversity trainer, and recipient of the National Mental Health Association Award for Excellence

in Education, exposes prejudice and bigotry for what it is; an irrational class system based upon

purely arbitrary factors (Frontline, 2009). A quote from Jane Elliot explains the depth of

emotions and motivation for the experiment, “I thought this is the time now to teach them really

what the Sioux Indian prayer that says, oh Great Spirit, keep me from ever judging a man until I

have walked in his moccasins, really means” (Frontline). The setting for the first experiment

takes place in Riceville Elementary School, Riceville Iowa which remains ninety-five percent

Caucasian Anglo-Saxon to this day. The setting for the second experiment takes place at Green

Haven Correctional Facility, a maximum security prison in Stormville, New York.

Jane Elliot used this method to develop her theory that discrimination is because of

nurture and not nature. The video shows how Jane Elliot’s experimental curriculum on the evils

of discrimination had a lasting effect on the lives of her students as well as a dramatic effect on a

group of prison guards and parole officers who were subjected to the experiment.. The video, A

Class Divided, looks at what this experiment taught the children and how they continue to be

affected by it years later; it also reviews a second experiment of the same nature conducted with

a group of prison guards and parole officers. She began both experiments by dividing an

otherwise homogenous group by the color of their eyes.

In the first experiment she divided third graders, and in the second experiment she

divided prison officials. She instructed the participants to treat some of her subjects far better
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than others based solely on their eye color. Jane Elliot effectively created two unequal groups in

two experiments. Each time one group was given considerable special treatment.

In the experiment with the third grade students, she instructed children with brown eyes

to wear special collars. This was one of the biggest factors that influenced changes in the

children’s thoughts, feelings, moods, and behaviors. They were wearing the collars for the

purpose of being identified as a minority, and so that people far away would know the color of

their eyes. The participants wearing collars were not allowed to drink from the water fountain

play with the “blue eyed” children on the play ground, go back for “seconds” in the lunch line,

and various other discriminating factors (Frontline, 2009).

On the first day of the experiment, it took the brown eyed kids representing the minority

five and one half minutes to get through the phonics card exercise. On the second day when they

were the majority, it only took them two and one half minutes. According to Elliot, the only

change was that “now” they are the superior people. The kids said they were slower the day

before because they had collars on (Frontline, 2009). When the “blue eyed” kids had the collars

on, they also did worse on their assignment. The “blue eyed” kids said they did worse because

they were thinking about the collars they wore during the experiment. One child said he “hated

today because I am blue eyed” (Frontline). Jane Elliott exclaimed that this particular class was

about a terrible thing called discrimination. She said, “I didn’t say it was going to be a fair day,

because it isn’t” (Frontline).

The results of the experiment with the third grade students revealed that the children

adopted their roles at a profoundly frightening level. Blue-eyed students regressed to a state of

insecurity while the brown-eyed students became, in Jane Elliott's words, "arrogant, ugly,

domineering, overbearing White Americans" (Frontline, 2009). One child told the teacher that
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she better keep the yard stick on her desk in case the brown eyed people get out of hand! An

astonishing reaction was displayed was when Jane Elliot asked two of the children why they

were fighting on the play ground. One young boy said, “Russell called me names and I hit him in

the gut”. Elliot asked, “What did he call you?” The child responded, “Brown eyes” (Frontline).

While processing the lesson with the children, they described how they felt and what they

learned. One child said, “They don’t get anything in this world because they are a different

color” (Frontline). In one day, Jane Elliot proved that racism is a learned trait. According to

Carl Horowitz (2007), the experiment not only had an impact on the children’s individual

behaviors, thoughts, feelings, and moods but also the townsfolk of Riceville displayed

displeasure. When Elliott walked into the teachers' lounge the following week, several

colleagues got up and walked out (Horowitz, 2007). When she went downtown to do errands,

she heard whispers. Her children were taunted or assaulted by their fellow students; more than

once, they were called "nigger lover." (Horowitz).

Replicating her exercise would become her life's mission. Therefore, she orchestrated

the second experiment with a group of prison guards who were told to report to the facility for a

work shop. The participants were not initially aware of the exercise. She divided the employees

by eye color. In this experiment the blue eyed people were understood to be the minority. The

"majority" group was giving things like being allowed into the conference room early, given

seats and a more comfortable environment, and treated with respect (Frontline, 2009). The

advantages were even more distinguishable for the "minority" group who were subjected to sub

par conditions, forced to wear bands of shame, and faced humiliating circumstances (ProQuest

News Stand, 2007).

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The second experiment showed that in just a few hours under Elliott's withering regime, a

group of grown professionals became despondent and distracted, stumbling over the simplest

commands (ProQuest News Stand, 2007).

“Whether the trainees are children or childlike adults, the premise is the same: all white

individuals must be emotionally rewired to overcome their racism” (U.S. State News, 2009).

Nobody wins unless everybody wins. The participants stated that they felt a sense of

hopelessness. The guards reflected that they now understood what it must be like to be a

minority and demonstrated a motivation for change (U.S. State News).

These experiments point to the predictability of evil; that process by which ordinary

individuals can do wicked things so long as they have the proper framework in which to

rationalize them. The most important message that the experiment reveals is that the children

believed and trusted what their teacher told them in much the same manner in which they believe

and trust what their parents teach them. Changing the racist attitudes and behaviors in the world

must start with parental guidance. The belief of how other people perceived them led the

participants to believe it about themselves. The kids said they felt like a “dog on a leash”. A

most astounding comment from one child was that when wearing the collar, he felt like he was

shut up in a prison, and some one threw away the key (Frontline, 2009). These factors

“naturally” occur within society on a daily basis. For example, millions of African American and

Latino young people in the United States do not get an education equal to that of most whites; a

contributing factor to this is because urban schools they go to do not have the financial backing

as do the schools in the white suburbs (Lee & Dean, 2004).   It is unimaginable how many people

have had to live entire lives under these circumstances!

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Showing this video should be used to train future counselors and psychologists because

not only all people but especially psychology professionals should be diversity specialists. Elliot

stated “the necessity of this program is a crime” (Frontline, 2009). Through watching A Class

Divided, role playing activities, case studies, discussions, group projects, readings, and personal

reflection the therapist will develop an awareness of their own individual cultural backgrounds,

the foundation of their values, and how those values influence thinking, behavior, and their

therapeutic approaches. Life is richer and more interesting if you have friends and acquaintances

from many racial backgrounds. Cultural competency should be a requirement of all educational

training programs in order to receive a degree in behavioral sciences.

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References

American Psychiatric Association (2003). Is schizophrenia a down side of urban life? Retrieved

from http://pn.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/full/38/10/37

Horowitz, C. F. (2007). Jane Elliot and her blue-eyed devil children. FRONTPAGEMAG.COM.

Retrieved from http://97.74.65.51readArticle.aspx?ARTID=1019

Lee, R. M., & Dean, B. L. (2004). Middle-class mythology in an age of immigration and

segmented assimilation: Implication for counseling psychology. Journal of Counseling

Psychology, 51(1), 19-24. doi:10.1037/0022-0167.51.1.19

Thirteen (Producer). (2008, July 15). Birth of a Surgeon: Arron Brown Interview: Dr. Margaret

Chan [Motion picture]. In (Producer), WideAngle. Podcast retrieved from http: http

Jane Elliot to Speak at Washburn. 30. (2009, April 10). US Fed News Service, Including US

State News, from Research Library. (Document ID: 1676943891).

Eye-catching course to tackle prejudice. (2007, May 12). Hull Daily Mail, p. 4. Retrieved from

ProQuest Newsstand. (Document ID: 1269877841).

Frontline. (2009). PBS Presents: A Class Divided [Video file]. Retrieved from:

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