When asked if she felt the experiment should be repeated or taught to other teachers, she said (I'm paraphrasing) "no". The necessity for such an experiment is troubling, but if necessary teachers could be trained to conduct the experiment.
When I first saw this piece about 5 years ago, I was surprised to know that someone in a place like Riceville, IA would think it a worthy cause to conduct such an experiment. I found myself wondering if the parents of those 3rd graders had any idea beforehand of what was going to take place. Although they were virtually a segregated town, the children seemed aware of racism and discrimination - no doubt due to Mrs. Elliott.
As far as the kids themselves, the blue eyed children seemed completing comfortable in their dominant role - one even offering suggestions as to how to make the inferiority of the brown eyes known to those outside the classroom! Their actions indicated to me a behavior or attitude that was long since present in their psyche. These were not attitudes that were new to many of them. Brian seemed uncomfortable with the experiment from the start. The boy with the glasses (Russell, I think his name was) seemed to enjoy his new found power - taunting his classmate on the playground.
The brown eyes on the first day seemed down. Although they knew it was a "game", they completely bought into it...even scoring low on the flashcards. On the second day, when they were on top, they weren't like the brown eyed children. They didn't seem to "lord" power over their classmates. They just seemed relieved to no longer be wearing the collars. The brown eyed children were almost like Hester Prynne of the Scarlet Letter - they wore their badges of shame in silence and obedience.
In the debrief, all the children seemed scarred, yet relieved that the "game" was over. They seemed to fully understand what it felt like to be discriminated against....well, as much as any non-minority could understand.
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