Brown Eyes

Ok so the other day I had to watch the Eye of the Storm video for something. I’d heard of it before, but I’d never actually seen it. The video is a documentary of an experiment a schoolteacher, Jane Elliot, decided to do with her elementary school class after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. All the children in her class were white Christians in an itty- bitty town in the middle of Iowa. They didn’t really seem to understand the magnitude of what had just happened. So for her experiment Jane Elliot told her students that blue eyed students are superior to brown eye students. The next day she reversed it. It was interesting to see how quickly the students’ behavior changed. By recess on the first day two students had already gotten in a fight because one called the other “brown eyes”. The students’ grades were also affected. The students that were told they were superior did better in class exercises than the “inferior” students. Jane’s theory is that racism must be taught; it is not inherent in a person. Jane did this with all her classes until she left the school. Obviously, the whole thing was extremely controversial. Many teachers and parents did not agree with her. After her experiment became so widely known she began receiving hate mail (Supposedly the most famous piece of hate mail quoted was, “How dare you try this cruel experiment out on white children.”). Other children attacked her children, and even today she is not welcomed in her home town. However there are some people who truly admire her and many of her students say the experience was life changing. Now I can’t say if I was teacher that I would necessarily do what she did, but Jane definitely made an impact and got her message to stay with those kids. Anyways it’s a thought provoking video and if you haven’t seen it you should consider checking it out.

I couldn't find the link to the one I saw, but this is a link to a Frontline episode they did about it with updates with the original kids. I haven't actually watched it yet so I hope its as good as the one I saw :)

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6189991712636113875&ei=E_g3SpiTKp62qQLFjKTmDw&q=blue+eyed+brown+eyed+experiment&hl=en&client=firefox-a

Currently reading: Love in the time of Cholera, Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Currently watching: Bones