ipl-logo

A Brief Summary Of The Film A Class Divided

1595 Words7 Pages

Caroline Vosmik March 19, 2024 SOC 153H. The documentary “A Class Divided” was released on March 26th, 1985, and was produced and directed by William Peters. It follows Jane Elliott, a third-grade teacher who wanted to teach her students a practical lesson on prejudice following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968. Elliott utilized and expanded upon William Peter’s classic study of the unique eye-color lesson in prejudice and discrimination, which she felt would best aid her students of rural Riceville, Iowa, which had an almost entirely white population at the time. This film follows the original third-grade exercise, a reunion of this class years later in 1984, and Elliott’s workshops with the Iowa Department of Corrections …show more content…

After these characterizations were established, those designated as inferior began to behave in an inferior manner, and since the only noticeable differentiating factor between the groups was their eye colors, we can observe how these groups behaved per the ideological myth that the authority figure had implemented into this environment. These categorizations are associated with the concept of reference groups and how the blue-eyed children were the in-group, and the brown-eyed children were the out-group, shown through specific limitations based on physical criteria. The out-group had less recess time, had to wait to go to lunch, didn’t get seconds at lunch, and couldn’t drink at the same water fountain as the in-group in addition to not being allowed to play with them (1985). Socialization is the overarching term for the lifelong process of “learning rules for adapting to social and cultural normality” which highlights the role of societal rules in guiding individual integration into groups and communities within a society. Individuals learn core values, beliefs, and morals through the observation of others, which builds bonds and aids individuals in developing a sense of belonging within a specific group (2019). The separation of groups present in Elliott’s simulated socialization indicates two different social classes with

Show More
Related

David Berreby It Takes A Tribe Summary

1003 Words | 5 Pages

The Unfavorable Offspring of the Humanistic Tendency to Form Bonds In the article “It Takes a Tribe,” David Berreby utilizes the example of students’ immediate college loyalty to claim that humans identify with groups because they desire to have a sense of belonging. In the article “ ‘Blaxicans’ and Other Reinvented Americans,” Richard Rodriguez talks about categorization by race to claim that Americans, in particular, feel the need to be in separate, defined classes. Berreby and Rodriguez emphasize different effects of humans’ natural tendency to classify themselves. Berreby focuses on the formation of opposition between groups while Rodriguez focuses on the formation of false perceptions of groups.

Read More

Summary Of Class In America By Gregory Mantsios

636 Words | 3 Pages

All Americans don’t have an equal opportunity to succeed; inheritance laws provide built in privileges to the offspring of the wealthy, which just adds to the likelihood of their success (Colombo 392). In Gregory Mantsios article “Class in America,” he states that the social class you are in affects how you will succeed in school, relating to test scores and the level of schooling that you receive; thus determining how the rest of your life will turn out. He highlights many other beliefs that are broadly held about social classes and rebuts them using statistical evidence. Mantsios believes that the class a person resides in will determine their future more than he or she is willing to admit. Mantsios communicates that social class is prevalent in America, however I believe that it doesn’t determine a person’s fate.

Read More

Summary: A Question Of Class By Dorothy Allison

527 Words | 3 Pages

Prior to reading these two articles, I had never heard of Dorothy Allison. After reading them, I do not think I will forget her. “A Question of Class” and “Don’t Tell Me You Don’t Know” grabbed my attention, but I could relate to “A Question of Class” more. Thankfully, I did not live in poverty the first eighteen years of my life like Dorothy Allison did. Also, I never experienced any kind of sexual abuse.

Read More

Summary Of A Class Apart By Carlos Sandoval

373 Words | 2 Pages

Carlos Sandoval’s A Class Apart is built around the landmark 1951 legal case Hernández vs. Texas, in which a group of Mexican American attorneys bring the seemingly insignificant small-town murder case against Pedro Hernández to the national level, a suit that, being the first time that a Mexican American would appear before the U.S. Supreme Court, would grow to become a milestone among the nation’s civil rights cases. The first to take true note of the case itself was Mexican American attorney Gus García, who listened through the pleas of Hernández’s mother. With this, García quickly realized that there was more to this particular case than the death of another chauvinistic employer, the real concern being whether or not he would be able to

Read More

Structural Functionalism In The Film A Class Divided

418 Words | 2 Pages

In Symbolic interactionism, it is believed that race and ethnicity are socially constructed through interactions between individuals, where individuals give meaning to symbols, language and signs through daily social interactions. From the documentary “A Class Divided”, the symbolic interactionist theory can be seen through the blue-eyed and brown-eyed experiment conducted by Jane Elliott. Her experiment divided her class according to their eye color and treated them differently based on this physical characteristic. This experiment showed how easily individuals are able to make judgments based on physical characteristics and how these judgments can shape how we interact with others. The blue-eyed children felt inferior and discriminated against, while the brown-eyed children felt superior, demonstrating the power of these labels in shaping social interactions.

Read More

Summary Of Class In America 2012 By Gregory Mantsios

398 Words | 2 Pages

In his seminal work, “Class in America 2012,” Gregory Mantsios challenges the prevailing belief in the American Dream, arguing that socioeconomic class significantly influences an individual’s opportunities and outcomes. As Mantsios himself states, ‘All Americans do not have an equal opportunity to succeed, and class mobility in the United States is lower than that of the rest of the industrialized world’ (Mantsios, 2012). This statement not only contradicts the idealistic view of America as a land of equal opportunity, but also highlights the stark reality of class immobility. Mantsios’s work was particularly relevant during the time of its publication, when societal focus on economic issues was heightened due to events like the Occupy Wall

Read More

Class Divided Summary

395 Words | 2 Pages

The documentary “Class Divided” is a video that was done in the early 1960s to show students how racism and discrimination is shown, and how to put yourself in that other persons shoes. The teacher had divided her students into two different groups based on their eye color. This exercise shows the students how discrimination racism can cause so much trouble and drama. It shows that we take this on because of our surroundings and how we are taught growing up. I felt that this video is perfect for what we have been learning and doing in our last discussion.

Read More

They Ve Got To Be Carefully Taught Konig Analysis

592 Words | 3 Pages

Should children remain “color blind,” or should they be taught about cultural differentiations? Today, it appears young children do not notice racial prejudices until they are explicitly pointed out. Adolescents can only be sheltered from society for so long; therefore, it’s beneficial to explain the differences amongst various cultures and ethnicities. In “They’ve Got to Be Carefully Taught,” Susan Brady Konig writes about the innocence of children being taken away because they are becoming culturally aware.

Read More

Research Paper On Brown V Board Of Education

686 Words | 3 Pages

In the experiments a child was presented several dolls that were identical besides skin color. Most children picked the White doll, despite their own different complexion. “The Clarks concluded the “prejudice, discrimination, and segregation created a feeling of inferiority among African-American children and damaged the self-esteem” (“NAACP”). The Doctors’ evidence within the experiments gave a clear conclusion of children feeling inferior. However, in the 1960’s a movement was made to appreciate black culture.

Read More

Jane Elliot's Experiment

596 Words | 3 Pages

I was shocked that there had been no altercations prior to the experiment but the day of the experiment, the blue eyed children quickly adapted to the idea that they were better than blue eyed students. One of the students said, “I felt like a king,” and continued to state he felt he felt like he ruled the brown eyes(A Class Divided, 1968). By labeling the children and segregating them into specific groups, the

Read More

Jane Elliott's Argument Analysis: The Blue Eyed Experiment

724 Words | 3 Pages

Jane Elliot Split her 3rd grade c lass into two different groups brown eyed group and the blue eyed group; before splitting them she asked them is being discriminating to others right and they answer the way she expected them to answer because it has been taught to them since they have been in her class, she then proceeded to ask them why was it wrong and they could not give her a clear answer she also ask them would they like to know how it feels to be discriminated against and they all said yes. She conducted this exercise for a total of two days she started the first day off letting the children know that the brown eyed students were more smarter and all around better than the blue eyed student. She then withness some of the sweetest kids turn into nasty discriminating adolescence they tease the blue eyed children every chance they could.

Read More

A Class Divided Documentary Analysis

1170 Words | 5 Pages

The documentary titled, “ A Class Divided” introduces us to the experiment made in an elementary school in Iowa by the schoolteacher named Jane Elliot. The documentary begins with Mrs. Elliot reuniting with the students who she did this experiment with the first time. The students are much older now, and they willingly want to watch the experiment that they were part of when they were elementary kids. The experiment was done days after the death of Martin Luther King Jr. Mrs. Elliot has always thought about doing the eye color experiment, but she was never sure of when to do it. She asked her third grade student if it would be interesting to see what would happen if they were judged by their eye color.

Read More

Personal Narrative-Poseidon

343 Words | 2 Pages

Gods, I miss you. Poseidon has seemed to make it his only mission for me not to get off this blasted island, but don’t worry a bit, I will escape if it is the last thing I do! Anyways, let me tell you about my insane day, we'll, days. So as I was sailing my men and I spotted an island with an interesting cave that we just had to check out.

Read More

Psychological Theories Of Prejudice And Discrimination Essay

2116 Words | 9 Pages

They put people into social groups divided into in-group or out-group i.e. us versus them through a process of social categorization. Social identity theory states that group members of an in-group will discriminate and hold prejudiced views against others in the out-group in order to enhance their self-esteem. Social identification is relational and comparative because people define themselves relative to individuals considered to belong to other categories (Tajfel et al

Read More

The Pros And Cons Of Social Categorization Theory

1323 Words | 6 Pages

Social categorization theory developed by Turner (1978) describes the categorization of people based on salient attributes like gender, ethnicity or age, resulting in stereotyping on the basis of these differences. Social categorization theory posits that similarities and dissimilarities of demographics can lead formation of different group with resulting effects on member of in-group favorably themselves to the detriment of members of out-groups social (Turner, Brown & Tajfel, 1979). Self-categorization theory explains when individuals categorize themselves by assigning to themselves the manners, actions and other characteristics they link with association within a specific group (Schmitt, Branscombe, Silvia, Garcia, & Spears. 2016). By means of self-categorization and membership of a group, people cultivate a social identity that functions as a social-cognitive scheme (customs, standards and attitudes) for their group associated action. The tendency is for the perceiver to consider these attributes as vital to his or her own personality and thus use these attributes to label others (Hoffman Harburg, & Maier, 2014).

Read More

More about A Brief Summary Of The Film A Class Divided

Open Document