The Jane Elliott Experience

Originally posted September 23, 2010

I just got back from listening to Jane Elliott lecture at UNI. Yes, THE Jane Elliott that you learned about in Psych 101. She is famous for teaching her students about discrimination by dividing them into groups according to eye color. Blue eyes vs. brown eyes. Each group was superior to the other for a day including having their errors or faults blamed on their eye color, superiors enjoying privileges and the inferiors losing rights to play equipment and drinking fountains.

Elliott is very “in-your-face” and I think we probably all felt uncomfortable at times. But shouldn’t we feel uncomfortable talking about a social ill like racism that still persists?

Her presentation included some serious “back-to-basics” ideas like teaching students good listening skills, and she touted the Orton-Gillingham phonics method for teaching all students to read.

Elliott may be lauded in Psych 101 and education classes in universities, but this was not her experience in Riceville, Iowa where she taught 3rd grade and then junior high. She shared how she, her parents, her husband and children were ostracized in their hometown after her classroom experiment in discrimination. Despite the vitriolic response of the community and even the teacher’s union, Elliott continued her lessons in discrimination for all but two years of her teaching career.

She has had positive feedback from some students and their parents, thanking her for teaching them this important lesson. The documentary A Class Divided returns to Riceville, Iowa to talk to some members of Elliott’s class five years after their graduation from high school.

I participated in a race relations simulation during a leadership institute at ISU for high school students. Each student drew a race or ethnicity from a bag. We were told that we were members of a community and that our goal was to make improvements to our town by making requests of the City Council, also made up of students. We were given a time limit and some fake money and set loose.

Being part (a very small part) Native American I was disappointed to find that I had drawn “white” from the bag. I guess I was hoping for something more exotic.  As the simulation progressed, it became obvious that the City Council had been given additional instructions to make it more difficult for any non-white persons or groups to get their projects approved. When I figured this out I offered myself as a liaison between these groups and the City Council. The groups who were being discriminated against lashed out at me and did not trust my intentions because I was a member of the favored race. My fellow whites scorned me for trying to help the other groups. By the end of the simulation it was obvious that this was not a game that we could actually win but an experience we were meant to have. I was bothered by the eagerness of others to play the game despite the face that the situation was not fair. During the post-activity discussion I was getting a lot of dirty looks from other students who didn’t understand why I took it so seriously.

I think the point of such simulations is indeed very serious. See how easily we can be tricked into behaving in a prejudiced way? Isn’t that frightening? I think it is and I think we should not even be willing to “play” at prejudice.

The greatest learning I had tonight was that we still have a long way to go, not just in terms of racism, but sexism, treatment of LGBT people, respecting people of different faiths, etc. Lately I have been toying with the idea of going to law school to fight such battles in the courtroom. I believe, as Elliott does, that education is the answer. In that case, I am already on the front lines. For now I am going to become the best teacher I can and examine myself and my students for prejudices and confront them.