Blue Eyes and Brown Eyes – The Exercise That Taught Children Racism
In 1968, in the town of Riceville, Iowa, a third grade teacher Jane Elliot wanted her eight year old students to understand discrimination. Dr Martin Luther King Jr had been assassinated the day before and the Blacks were taking to the streets demanding equal rights as Whites. So she decided to create an exercise whereby her all-white students could actually experience a real life situation. Instead of skin color, Elliot divided her class into two based on the color of the children’s eyes, blue on one side and brown and green on the other. On the first day ...
