Think back to those teachers and lifelong lessons that have stayed with you over the years. Forty-three years ago, a teacher walked into her elementary school classroom with an unconventional lesson plan, to say the least. She was teaching a class made up entirely of white students in a small, rural town by the name of Riceville, Iowa. The teacher, Jane Elliott, began that day’s lesson by dividing her students into two groups based on the color of their eyes. The blue-eyed students were told to put a collar around their neck so that they could be easily identified. Elliott made it clear to the brown eyes that they were smarter, followed directions better, and could be trusted more than the blue eyes.
Throughout the course of that day, the blue-eyed children were made to feel inferior. Whenever she had a chance, Elliott made a point of criticizing, belittling, and isolating them. As the day wore on, the brown eyed students made it known that they did not want to talk to the blue eyes, eat lunch with them, or play with them during recess. Gradually, the emotional toll on the blue-eyed students could be seen in their faces. Interestingly, their schoolwork suffered as well. When she asked her blue-eyed students why their performance dropped off that day, they said they kept thinking about their collars.
The following day, her students were in for a rude awakening. Elliott informed them that she had made a terrible mistake the day before. The blue eyes were actually the superior students, while the brown eyes were inferior. Therefore, she instructed her blue-eyed students to take their collars off, and put them on the brown-eyed students. Needless to say, her blue-eyed students were thrilled at the prospect of getting back at their tormentors and being the superior group. During the second day of this experiment, the blue eyes were just as mean and insulting as the brown eyes had been the day before.
Elliott’s lesson plan became national news. The teacher and her students were the subject of news reports, and Elliott even appeared on the Johnny Carson show. When asked why she did this, she put it very simply. She wanted them to feel what it was like to be seen as inferior to someone else.
Since that eventful lesson, Elliott has taken this lesson and tailored it to diversity training in the corporate world. Her approach has met with acclaim and criticism. Some point to the way she demeans people to give them a taste of what it is like being on the receiving end of prejudice and discrimination. Others rightfully point out that this type of lesson needs to be continually reinforced. Her former students, who have kept in touch, are amongst her biggest admirers.
While some may fault Elliott on some of her methods, her goal is as relevant today as it was in 1968. Is it possible to effectively simulate the effects of intolerance? If so, how can we use this experience to broaden and deepen our skill-set? Finally, how can we measure the long-term effect of this type of learning experience?