Today I watched a video on pbs.org about a classroom being divided based on the color of students' eyes. This video was titled A Class Divided. This video was published back in March of 1985, so times back then were a lot different (PBS). Today's blog is going to show you all my perspective on this video.

This video started out with a normal school teaching talking to her students, young students probably 3rd grade, about the colors of people they are surrounded by. The teacher performs an exercise where she separates her students based on the color of their eyes to see how it would be like if everyone was treated differently as how they treat people based on the color of their skin. The blue eyed students got more privileges like, for example 5 more minutes of recess, while the brown eyed students had to stay inside.  The blue eyed students got to go to lunch earlier than the brown eyed students and the brown eyed students had to be punished if they did something "bad" (PBS).

In the first chapter of the video, a student with brown eyes claimed that another student called him "brown eyes." The teacher goes to ask why is this a problem, and the brown eyed student explains that "calling me brown eyes makes me stupider." The teacher also explains that she aw "wonderful kids turn into bad, vicious, discriminating little third graders," just because of separating them by eye color (PBS). In the second day of the experiment, the brown eyed students got more privileges to show the blue eyed students how it feels to be discriminated against.

The one thing I did like about this video is that this is teaching kids how to respect everyone they are surrounded by no matter what their skin color is. This experiment taught children that if you treat someone differently based on their appearances, it really hurts that person. The teacher also tells the students that "discrimination is filthy" and "should not be used in life" (PBS). At the end of this experiment, these students learned a very valuable lesson, that just because someone may look different, means that they should be treated differently.

One thing that I did not care for was the way these students were referring to other people in the very beginning of this video. I do not particularly care for the use of some language in children's voices. I did not like the way these students were able to describe other people by calling them names. I know this teacher was not able to control what the students said, but there is no reason for a child of that age to know that language and to know that that is what they should call the people of other colors.

I was not surprised at how the kids with blue eyes treated the kids with brown eyes because, going back to the beginning of the video, all the children knew that people that looked different needed to be called out on. When the teacher separated the students' based on eye color, I knew that the children with blue eyes would call out the students with brown eyes and treat them bad because the teacher straight up told them "the brown eye children are bad" (PBS).

I will always remember the very first scene in the video, and how the students described people in the world that had a different color to their skin. Its like these students were taught by their peers, family, or even school teachers to call people on the street of a different color names, or make fun of them. I, personally, do not like making fun of somebody and I think its just wrong to talk that way about someone, so seeing little children calling black people horrible names, and Indians names, its like whats the point of that, why would you do that?

References:
Pbs,  http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/divided/etc/view.html, A Class Divided. Created March 1985. Accessed 02 November 2014.