I think the most eye-opening part of this video was how quickly the children took on the identity of their group, especially when the teacher was also encouraging the children to behave in this way. I think it goes to show how much of this is learned behavior. Children are watching and looking to see how adults act in any given situation in order to know how to behave themselves. If the adults around them are showing racism to be acceptable then the kids will then believe it is acceptable. However, I think it can be encouraging to know that, on the flip side, if we instill principles of equality and justice early on, children will be more likely to carry that into adulthood. As adults the work is hard because we have years of muck to undo. Children have less to deconstruct!
I haven't seen this video since my college psych class, and honestly I forgot about it. The first few minutes of the video I was appalled at the teacher because I thought this was legit, real. Then the more I watched it I was in awe because this is a great experiment to do in class. I am a teacher for students with Autism, and a lot of behaviors are accompanied by racial and discriminatory slurs. I feel like this lesson would be great in helping me teach tolerance.
Children are like sponges. Everyone is a model for their learning. my Children are grown so I am not faced with the huge dilemma of how to help them cope with the present happenings and to keep the communications open. My heart is especially with the young people now.
The fact that Mrs. Elliot continued to remark who was "smarter" and congratulate children extra and put other kids down on purpose, wow. She went all out. To make such an important point. So needed. And the only way to make that point is to lean into the discomfort and dissonance. I have watched the Oprah Episode where she did the same experience with adults and you are right, they didn't get it as well as the kids did. We need to change how we educate our own students. I am a music teacher and want to change my lesson plans and help to make a difference. Mrs. Elliot had guts to do this. I wonder what the parents thought of this experiment and her administration, she must have had a lot of support to be able to do that.