Express Yourself

First in first, before anything, you have to watch this video: (just click on the red title)

A Class Divided

I watched this documentary some time ago, and I was fascinated then, and now again after I re-watch it, how easily children’s mind can be played with, and how people’s opinions can be manipulated. A revolution can start just like that. The documentary is as interesting today, as it was in that day, after Martin Luther King Jr. was killed, and the teacher, Jane Elliot, conducted this experiment with her third-graders students. She tried to make her students understand how discrimination is only a matter of perception, it is something their belief system could not accept as normal, because they had been taught otherwise. Best friends became foes in minutes, only because all over a sudden, some has been told them that they are superior now. Once people think they have a privilege, they start acting differently, they try to impose and take advantage of that granted right. This means, they can hurt others whom they think are inferior, they can offend them or even they can hit them, as the film shows it actually happened.

The impact this experiment had on those students was a life-lasting one. That is why, as a teacher myself, I do not see any unethical procedure in Jane Elliot’s lesson. Third graders never forgot that judging someone by their skin color, eye color, race, or anything else is not good and doesn’t bring any good. Having this experiment conducted with kids, it is more effective; kids are innocent and even though they had never experienced such biases, they will be influenced forever by this little event that happened in their school, and the result will be a successful lifetime lesson.

A person is always defined by his/her actions, and not by the way he/she looks like. Kids learned after those two days, that what makes a good person good, is not the appearance but what is inside, the way that person behaves. Certainly, they never forgot that lesson, they weren’t damaged by that experiment, therefore it could be considered a good lesson of ethics.

If young kids would receive this type of lesson, maybe the world can get rid of discrimination and racism, and all other types of  biases, which can be seen in this world (people are living with hate, injustice, jealousy, envy, etc.)

No human being is superior to another human being, we might be superior to animals but not to our same kind.  That is why the message of this documentary is so powerful because it teaches how we all are the same, and we should accept everyone as it is or, how Martin Luther King Jr. said:  “not judged by the color of the skin, but by the content of the character”.

In conclusion, Jane Elliot’s experiment can be led nowadays in every school, in a positive way. Young children should learn about diversity, social justice, or discrimination in Jane Elliot’s manner. They are able to distinguish between fair and unfair, right over wrong, or just and unjust. Kids are aware of their racial identity from a very early age, as they are aware of the differences between boys and girls. Therefore, they can be exposed to diversity and they can be thought about it in a positive way. Children notice differences naturally, with no judgments, that is why it is important to learn about it and then, that lesson will stay with them forever. And after that, Martin Luther King’s dream to “look to a day when people will not be judged by the color of their skin” will hopefully, become real. Or to extend the topic, looking forward to that day when people are not being judged at all, and eliminating discrimination of all sorts.