Jane Elliott's Experiment Summary

In my opinion, Jane Elliott’s experiment of dividing her class by eye color is brilliant. Before the experiment, Elliott asked several questions to the kids and listened to their responses. I have to keep telling myself this is 1968, but still, I was baffled by some of their answers. In these young 3rd graders minds, it is completely acceptable to not give mutual respect to someone else based on their skin color. After Jane Elliott proposed the idea to split the class by eye color, the room became suddenly unsure of this situation. The children with blue eyes did not seem to mind, probably because nothing changed for them, they were still the “better” kind of people. For the children with Brown eyes, this feeling of being less than someone else is a feeling they have never felt before. For instances, the very same day Jane Elliott proposed this experiment, a problem regarding eye color arose on the play ground at recess. This situation just shows the effects of racism we have in our country, if children are getting defensive about having a different eye color than the other. I have been fortunate enough to have not …show more content…
The results would be similar in the sense that every individual wants to feel superior; I believe that is something we are born with. Children in today’s classrooms would want to be the “better half” even if they did not come out and express it. The results would be different in the sense of how our world has changed. It has been almost 50 years since this experiment, and being racist these days are not exactly something you say out loud to your teacher, and most certainly are not proud of. Classrooms now are filled with every race, gender, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation and religion. By no means do I believe these issues have disappeared, but I do think they have improved and hopefully continue to do