A Class Divided

A friend of mine showed me this video on Youtube. It is about an exercise conducted by this teacher called Jane Elliot in 1968, in response to the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. After witnessing how people responded to the unfortunate event with much discrimination, she felt a need to do something about discrimination and not just talk about it.

She carried out this exercise in school by first diving her 3rd graders into blue and brown-eyed groups. She then tells the blue-eyes they are "the better people in this room," gives them privileges and comments on their superiority all day. The brown eyes must wear collars. The next day, she reverses the process and makes the brown-eyes people the "superior ones". Using this exercise, she teaches her students a very important lesson in discrimination. I encourage you to watch all 5 parts. It was immensely enriching for me.

| Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 |

You can find out more about Jane Elliot and her teaching materials HERE at her website.