‘A Class Divided’ was an experiment conducted by third-grade teacher Jane Elliot. It was an attempt to explain how it felt to be discriminated against.
1968 was not a very progressive time, especially in America.
The United States was still fighting in the Vietnam War, Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated, and Tommie Smith and John Carlos, who won the gold and bronze medals for the 200-metre dash, respectively, had their awards stripped by the International Olympic Committee for protesting the injustices against African-Americans.
These are just some of the bad events that happened.
Noticing this discrimination, Jane Elliot, a third-grade teacher, wanted to do something about it.
Pacing around her classroom after all her students had gone home for the day, she pondered what she could do to create some change in society (I’m guessing this is what she probably did).
After an hour or so of contemplation and jotting down ideas on her blackboard, a light bulb lit up.
She finally had her idea (again, this is probably what happened. I wasn’t there so I don’t really know. Give me a break!)!
She decided that she will teach her students the feeling of being discriminated against.
She believed that if they knew how it felt, they might not do it to others.
And to do this, she was going to run a two-day psychological experiment.
The Experiment
So here’s how the experiment, A Class Divided, was conducted:
Elliot split her classroom into two groups –the brown-eyed and the blue-eyed.
On the first day, she told the blue-eyed students that they were smarter, nicer, and better listeners than the brown-eyed students.
She also gave them special privileges for having blue eyes. As for the brown-eyed students, she treated them terribly.
Elliot criticized them and made them wear collars.
On the second day of the experiment, she revered the roles. The brown-eyed group was treated marvellously, while the blue-eyed group was treated with discrimination.
When the second day was over, Elliot noticed that the dominant group became mean and loved the feeling of being superior.
They even acted as if they were better than the other group.
As for the menial group, they began to do poorly in their assignments and actually believed that they were inferior to the other group.
However, since both groups had to play both roles, every student felt what it would be like to be discriminated against, which was the goal of this experiment.
Elliot found that once a student was hurt by discrimination, he/she didn’t want to do it to others.
Since this experiment was a success, Elliot continued to do it once every school year.
What ‘A Class Divided’ Can Teach Us About Today’s Society
This experiment, which is a great example of the self-fulfilling prophecy, explains a lot about why certain social groups behave the way that they do.
For instance, let’s take the Projects or public housing in America.
I’m going to make a generalization and refer to all of them.
The Projects are known to be poor and crime-ridden. These issues are real problems that need to be dealt with.
But the bigger problem in these communities is that America (and to an extent the world) keeps saying that those who are from the Projects are lost causes.
There is no hope for them unless they become famous rappers or professional athletes.
This narrative is constantly being played over and over again, to the point where even young, intelligent African-American children believe it.
Many of them see no hope of escape from a life of crime and poverty because they are incapable of doing so.
On the other end of the totem pole, however, rich privileged kids are told a different narrative.
Many of them are told that they’re wealthy and have power.
They’re told that the sky is the limit and they can do whatever they want in life. They also have the resources (money and influence) to do as they please.
The constant reiteration of this narrative is why, I believe, people like Ethan Couch, who killed 4 people while driving drunk at 16 years old, commit crimes and don’t feel that they did anything wrong.
It’s because throughout their lives, they’ve been told this narrative and they started to believe it. They believed that they were above others… that they had more rights than the general public.
Conclusion
This is why I think every year, internationally, the wealthy and the poor need to switch spots for a couple of months.
The one percent has to move to a third-world country and swap lives with a local family. They also can’t bring any of their resources (money, gadgets, etc.) with them.
They have to be forced to live the life of a local and be treated as one too.
As for the poor family, they will live the life of a wealthy one-percenter.
And after a few years of this, humanity will be 1000 times better than it is now.
Nah, I’m just kidding. This won’t work. Rich people will find a way to get out of this.
But do you have any real solutions?