A Lesson In Bigotry

[amelia]

This Thursday night, Frontline (PBS) is doing a show about bigotry. I've seen it before and it's very interesting. A teacher uses an experiment in her class that really opens a few children's eyes to discrimination.

for more information: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/divided/

On any normal weekday morning, Jane Elliott looked forward to getting to her classroom at the Riceville, Iowa, Community Elementary School and to the teaching job she loved. Eager to pick up the threads of the previous day's lessons, delighting in her third-graders' sense of wonder at anything new, she saw each day as a kind of adventure in the company of children she enjoyed. Often she was reluctant, when the day was over, to see them leave.

But that Friday in April, 1968, was not a normal morning. The day before, Martin Luther King had been murdered in Memphis. For Jane, that had suddenly made a lot of things different. She had made a decision about what she would do in her class, a decision that now made her reluctant to leave the house for school.

She had made her decision, and she would stick to it, though she dreaded what she felt sure lay ahead. For a while, at least, she would be making each of her twenty-eight students unhappy; for a time, all would dislike her and resent what she was putting them through. She had worked hard since September to establish a warm and trusting relationship with each of them, and she had been proud of their success as a class in becoming a happy, co-operative, productive group. What she was now going to do would strain those hard-won ties, perhaps even threaten them. It was hardly a pleasant prospect.

The things she had planned to teach...would now have to wait, she decided, for all of them had paled beside the urgent message that had burst from her television set the night before. Now, the senselessness, the irrationality, the brutality of race hatred cried out to be explained, understood, committed irrevocably to memory in a lesson that would become a part of the life of each child she could reach with it.

Setting aside her doubts, she opened the door of Room 10, turned on the lights, and went to her desk. As she sat down, she saw before her the Sioux prayer she had planned to teach the children after they had erected a giant tepee: "Oh, Great Spirit, keep me from ever judging a man until I have walked a mile in his moccasins." It was precisely the lesson she hoped to teach today, though not at all in the way she had contemplated. First, she thought unhappily, they are going to have to walk that mile.

~William Peters, in this first chapter of his book A Class Divided: Then and Now.

 

[WaxNWane]

Written down and stuck on my tv.

And applause for regularly posting the cool documentary links.

 

[enjoyingitall]

The Jane Elliott story and the use of her exercise is one that I've implemented numerous times over the years in my classroom It's always a lesson with merit. Thanks for pointing out the air time of this on PBS....I think my students will have a viewing assignment Thursday evening.

 

[sweet soft kiss]

Is this the blue eyes/brown eyes lesson? I would think for any child it would be a sobering but valuable experience. I am reading a book at the moment about how being an outcast shaped this womans life... food for thought..

 

[amelia]

Is this the blue eyes/brown eyes lesson?

yeah..although i was trying to make it a bit of a teaser from my opening post.

 

[Cheyenne]

Is this the blue eyes/brown eyes lesson? I would think for any child it would be a sobering but valuable experience. I am reading a book at the moment about how being an outcast shaped this womans life... food for thought..

We did this at a summer camp in about 1969 or 1970. Being in the blue eye group, I was discriminated against. And I was MAD. I paid my own money to go to camp and didn't appreciate being treated poorly compared to the brown eye group. I even wrote home about it.

But I remember that lesson to this day. I got my money's worth at camp that year.

 

[WaxNWane]

Your friendly neighborhood bump.

 

[peachykeen]

Mmm, it's powerful stuff.

Always worth remembering, in these our troubled times.

 

[amelia]

But I remember that lesson to this day. I got my money's worth at camp that year.

I hope they include updates on some of the children from the class. It would be interesting to hear how the lesson impacted their lives.

 

[badasschick]

Jane Elliot Is my fucking GIRL!!!!

Her Docu, Eye of the Storm was the only thing that got through to some of the people I've tried to explain latent prejudice to.

Did anyone ever see when she appeared on Oprah about 10 years ago?

Wow, for once I believed that people understood what their prejudices do to people.

 

[badasschick]

I hope they include updates on some of the children from the class. It would be interesting to hear how the lesson impacted their lives.

They did follow up on those kids as teenagers, some were severly affected by it, some ended up with self esteem issues, but most came away with a better understanding of the differences of others.

 

[Soblue]

I think we did it in grade school.

I'm a blue also, so I think we REALLY remember it don't we.

Thanks for the notice Amelia.

 

[WaxNWane]

Anyone else going rock climbing should also set their VCRs.

 

[Guest]

Black is White

Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah

If you are Michael Jackson,

Black is White

Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah

 

[SilvaTungDevil]

I'm amazed at how deftly Elliot handled this.

 

[Lost Cause]

I'msofuckinghappyforthem.....

They'll learn a negative-based lesson.
I trust they'll be able to compete in the world with that useless fucking propaganda. Maybe they can "feel" their way to the unemployment office.
Priorities people!

 

[Mockingbird]

Re: I'msofuckinghappyforthem.....

Why oh why couldn't you have breast fed me mommy? The lack of your lactation has turned me bitter.

 

[red_rose]

Wow. I thought I'd gone to some rather exemplary schools, but I've never heard of this!

*sits around trying to watch the show online after reading up*

Darnit, people... get off the server so I can watch! lol

 

[WaxNWane]

Twas a very interesting show, with very groovy 60's glasses.

 

[SilvaTungDevil]

Twas a very interesting show, with very groovy 60's glasses.

And really bad haircuts, even the folks in the more recent segments.

 

[amelia]

I'm glad that some of you guys enjoyed the show. I thought it was very interesting...and Ms. Elliot's pretty tough. I'm not sure i'd want her looking down her nose at me.

Lost Cause, what would be a more important lesson to learn?

 

[WaxNWane]

And really bad haircuts, even the folks in the more recent segments.

I think it was circa 1985. Not a good time in the history of haircut eras.

 

[SilvaTungDevil]

Don't you just know that she was a real ball breaker of a teacher? At first I thought it strange that it was done on kids so young, thinking maybe they couldn't comprehend the lesson. I guess I forget what greedy little knowledge monkeys we are at that age.

 

[amelia]

I think it was circa 1985. Not a good time in the history of haircut eras.

you would say something like that..you are a blue eyed!

 

[WaxNWane]

you would say something like that..you are a blue eyed!

Outsider green-eye. Can't you even pick a side?! You probably don't even put your real name on your tests, just A.I.H.