While watching the video of Ms. Elliot and her classroom, I had a lot of emotions that came up. I was proud for starters because she was teaching her class of all white students something that I believe most white teachers wouldn't have dared tried to teach their class. I was proud because she was teaching them about racism and even allowing them to see how it feels in the hopes that they would remember how it felt and not act that way to other people who are different then they are.
The children seemed to be well aware and gave very good answers to Ms. Elliot's questions, and that was surprising to me. Anger and sadness were two of my biggest emotions because I didn't like seeing the children's faces after Ms. Elliot would say something like "oh you have brown eyes so that's why you don't know that" or "you have blue eyes so that's why you forgot." The children's smile visibly went away and they were so sad the rest of the day. But I was angry because of how easy it was for them to treat each other nasty just because of a difference in appearance. It was kind of like they were in a trance and once she said no more collars the children snapped out of it.
I also found this video to be emotional to watch. Mrs. Elliot was very brave with this lesson, a lesson that I'm sure has stuck with them for many years. It was so interesting to see how the kids who were wearing the collar said things like, "It didn't even seem to matter anymore." Or that they felt like it was pointless to try. Also, the difference in the speed in which they did their phonics cards, from one day to the next, surprised me. However, I really shouldn't be surprised. It must be so hard to keep trying day after day, when you're constantly being put down.
As a teacher myself, I know that children can be influenced both positively or negatively by the adults in their lives. They are often products of their environment and upbringing. They are innocent and pure at heart, but they base their perceptions and expectations on what is being modeled to them by older people in their lives. Growing up in abusive and racist environments make them more susceptible to grow up to be the same way as adults. However, if they grow up surrounded by anti-racist adults, they are more likely to grow up open minded and anti-racist themselves. This isn't always the case in every situation, but children won't know better if they are never educated on (or modeled to) what being anti-racist is.