A Class Divided Summary

The documentary A Class Divided, discusses a very important lesson that took place in Riceville, Iowa following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. In the film, Jane Elliot divides her third grade classroom into two separate groups based eye color alone. Students were given collars to wear to designate what color eyes they had. This was the third year in a row that Elliot was teaching this lesson. On the first day of this lesson, those with blue eyes were told that they were nicer, smarter, neater, and essentially better than those with brown eyes. Elliot reinforced this by praising them during school activities and by giving them extra privileges such as an extra 5 minutes during recess, getting to use the water fountain, and getting to be first in line at lunch. Additionally, the two groups could not play with one another at recess. The roles were reversed the second day meaning that those with brown eyes were better than those with blue eyes. Elliot states, “I watched what had been marvelous, cooperative, wonderful, thoughtful children

This concept is so important because the whole point of this experiment was to teach this third grade class that the race of an individual does not determine who they are or how they should be treated. For instance, by splitting her third grade classroom into two different groups based on eye color, Elliot was essentially creating two different races. What she was teaching is that while differences do exist between people, these differences do not define who these people are. Students learned that their eye color does not matter. A person is still a person, blue-eyed or brown-eyed, and should be treated equally. In regards to the real world, Elliot was depicting the idea that blacks are no different from whites, whites are no different from Asians, and that Asians are no different from Indians,