Film Analysis: A Class Divided

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Samantha Bergmann My initial reaction to the “A Class Divided” documentary was shocking yet amusing. It was interesting to see a teacher take matters into her own hands after the tragic death of Martin Luther King Jr. With the goal of opening the eyes of young children regarding the racism that was present in America, Ms. Elliot attempted to help her students learn to feel what it was like to be discriminated against and judged by one’s physical appearance. If this study was conducted today, there are several plausible outcomes. First, the students may have a much more difficult time buying into the experiment compared to Ms. Elliot’s students. In my opinion, kids today do not have as much respect for their teachers as they did back then.…show more content…
Within the first day the students were separated by eye color in which the blue eyed children were superior initially and the brown eyed children were inferior. The initial negativity that the brown eyed kids endured first, such as the “less time at recess, no drinking from the water fountain, no playing with the blue eyed kids, and being made fun of in class” could have had a greater emotional impact on those kids compared to the following day when the blue-eyed kids were now considered inferior. By the second day, the blue eyed kids could have caught on or expected to feel bad after seeing the brown eyed kids the day before. If a researcher were measuring the outcomes of this experiment they would have to consider this point and how it could impact the entire outcome. A second concern is the fact that the students used in this experiment were too young to actually understand the message that was intended for them. Due to the lack of brain development at this age, many of these third graders may not have been able to comprehend the meaning of discrimination. A problem then arises in that if they couldn’t comprehend it conceptually how were they going to be able to associate the emotion that they experience with the concept of

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