A Class Divided Summary

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In “A Class Divided” by Frontline, the documentary describes a 20 year long experiment that started in a 3rd grade class by a teacher named Jane Elliot. The documentary discusses an experiment about discrimination and it’s overall effect it had on the people in it. The experiment started through a third grade lesson where the teacher, Jane Elliot, treated blue eyed kids as superior than the other students for a day; 20 years later the same class get together to discuss the impacts they’ve had on them. Since then Elliot has continued to perform this experiment on groups of all ages, all around the world.
After Martin Luther King’s death her students were having trouble comprehending why this had happened to him; she decided to do an experiment
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They soon began to reveal the lasting impact on the rest of their upbringing, as well as the upbringing of their children. One of the students admits she still finds herself thinking, “Well, that's black". And then right in the next second--I won't even finish the thought--I'm saying, Well, I've seen whites do it. I've seen other people do it. It's not just the blacks". It's--everyone acts differently. It's just a different color is what hits you first. And then later, as I said, I don't even finish that thought before I remember back when I was like that and then I remember not, you know--everyone acts the same way; it's just your way of thinking is the difference.” While she might not have understood the greater reasoning of this experiment at the time, as she got older she started realizing that what she had been told, and taught by her society, wasn’t necessarily true and as a matter of fact there was “evil” or misbehavior to be seen everywhere around them. This is where we see the true results of these experiments, not only did the experiment help them realize what it felt to be discriminated against, it changed the way they saw the world. And while they are still young and easily impacted similar results were found with adults.
When doing the same exact experiment only this time with prison guards and parole officers not only did it show similar