M3 Discussion: A Class Divided

Watch A Class Divided, a classic documentary on third-grade teacher Jane Elliott's "blue eyes/brown eyes" exercise, conducted days following the 1968 assassination of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. This includes footage of the original documentary of Jane Elliott's third-graders (approximately 20 minutes, captioned), the reunion of those third-graders 14 years later (approximately 7 minutes), and the training exercise with prison staff (approximately 20 minutes). https://www(dot)pbs(dot)org/wgbh/frontline/documentary/class-divided/? Answer the following questions: 1. What did the children's body language indicate about the impact of discrimination? 2. How did the negative and positive labels placed on a group become self-fulfilling prophecies? 3. Both Elliott and her former students talk about whether or not this exercise should be done with all children. What do you think? If the exercise could be harmful to children, as Elliott suggests, what do you think actual discrimination might do? 4. What features did Elliott ascribe to the superior and inferior groups and how did those characteristics reflect stereotypes about minority and majority groups? 5. How did Elliott's discrimination create no-win situations for those placed in the inferior group? How did she selectively interpret behavior to confirm the stereotypes she had assigned? Remember, if you have a current event that is relevant to an issue on diversity that you want to share with the class, post it in the What's Happening in the News discussion area which is an ungraded, casual space for us to keep current and chat about what is literally happening today!