AN AMAZING EXPERIMENT

                     

 

                           AN AMAZING EXPERIMENT

 

In 1968 Miss Jane Eliot, in a zone of The United States with a moment of racial disturbances she asked her pupils about their opinion of black and Indian children. Her children were seven or eight years old. They answered that the black and Indian children were different and they deserved to don't go to the class with them.  They only answered what they listened in their houses. And then, the teacher said:

"Children, I have to tell you one thing. You are also different. Now we are going to divide the classroom in two parts. The children with blue eyes are going to stay in one part, and the children with brown eyes at the other. Because you must know children with blue eyes are more intelligent than children with brown eyes and because of they are going to have more hours of playtime, simple exercises"

 At the moment, she gave to the children of brown eyes some brown scarfs to distinguish them.

In that moment, it happened an enormous change. They started to think that their partners were different. In the afternoon children of blue eyes beat children with brown eyes. Children of brown eyes felt bad and they didn’t want to go to the school and because they felt discriminated. And they got bad marks because they believed the stereotype

The next day the teacher said in the class:

"Children, I have to speak with you, yesterday I said that children of blue eyes were more intelligent than children of brown eyes, but I was confused. Children with brown eyes are more intelligent than the others. Then, children with brown eyes didn’t want to sit next to children of blue eyes. Again, they believed the information of the stereotype."

The last day the teacher said that it was an experiment; she only wanted that the children feel for the first time the pain of discrimination. And the reason of the discrimination was a stupidity like the color of the eyes, the color of the skin…

The teacher told the experiment to their parents, and they were really surprised.

Ten years later, the teacher met with the pupils. They thanked the teacher for the realization of the experiment. They said it served them to learn about the discrimination and they didn’t discriminate anyone

What do you think about the teacher? I think it’s important to learn mathematics or language in the school, but it is also really important to learn moral values. More teachers like Jane Elliot should exist.

Stop and think a minute

How many stereotypes have you got about other people? Maybe your family or your friends taught you these stereotypes, but you can change, and you must know that we are all the same.

Andrea García Luján 3Bx