Jane Elliott’s discrimination experiment is a project she used to teach her class about discrimination. The project explains to others how discrimination is harmful and the different ways it can affect others. She created this exercise to teach her third grade students why Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated, but during the process, Elliott discovered much more pressing issues. The classroom was turned upside down during the two-day experiment, and not only the children learned a valuable lesson from the new exercise. Elliott and those who observed, learned a great deal about the experiment as well, the lesson staying with the children forever. Those involved learn the different effects discrimination can have on one who is discriminating
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Students that normally could not perform certain objectives would go beyond their normal skill level on the days they were considered the “superior” group, leaving room to believe that those students had been told in the past that they were not enough to perform well and could not do certain objectives others could (Elliott). Some of Elliott’s students did not think they could read big words or work the more difficult math problems because someone had once told them they could not. On the day of the experiment when they were told they could, they were suddenly able to read bigger words and work the harder problems that they could not achieve before the project. The article “An unforgettable lesson” declares, “I watched the kids finding out that teachers lied to them about their abilities — and saw them decide that they were never going to live down to teachers' lies again” (Elliott, Jane). After they were told they could not do something, the students believed this. But once they were told otherwise the students went beyond their normal boundaries that discrimination had set. For this reason, the Jane Elliott experiment is important in providing information and teaching valuable information to not only students but adults who discriminate as
Students that normally could not perform certain objectives would go beyond their normal skill level on the days they were considered the “superior” group, leaving room to believe that those students had been told in the past that they were not enough to perform well and could not do certain objectives others could (Elliott). Some of Elliott’s students did not think they could read big words or work the more difficult math problems because someone had once told them they could not. On the day of the experiment when they were told they could, they were suddenly able to read bigger words and work the harder problems that they could not achieve before the project. The article “An unforgettable lesson” declares, “I watched the kids finding out that teachers lied to them about their abilities — and saw them decide that they were never going to live down to teachers' lies again” (Elliott, Jane). After they were told they could not do something, the students believed this. But once they were told otherwise the students went beyond their normal boundaries that discrimination had set. For this reason, the Jane Elliott experiment is important in providing information and teaching valuable information to not only students but adults who discriminate as