Frontline: A Class Divided

[slant]

I mentioned this film a long time ago in the "Everybody's a little bit Racist" thread, but didn't really get much of a response of it. I think I'm going to rewatch it pretty soon, but I wanted to link it so all of you could watch it:



http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/divided/etc/view.html

46 minutes long, but worth it.

Essentially this is about discrimination and an experiment a teacher did the day after Martin Luther King was assassinated with her 3rd grade class. She 'divided' the class with a social maneuver, by labeling people with this color of eyes 'better' than people of the other color of eyes. If you watch you will be able to see how such an attitude when granted by authorities can give kids a different attitude and how it overall effected the life of the kids when they grew up as adults and their view to things such as racism.

I personally, found it very touching.

I would like personal opinions from people who have seen this or are going to watch it now- reviews of this film are also welcome. I believe it will breed an interesting discussion.

 

[randomsomeone]

Can't watch it right away but really looking forward to it...thanks! I really like Frontline!!

 

[slant]

No problem, this thread will wait around

It's a juicy film, honest.

 

[Faye]

I've seen this before for Soc. It is interesting, especially the adults.

 

[Lucifer]

I mentioned this film a long time ago in the "Everybody's a little bit Racist" thread, but didn't really get much of a response of it. I think I'm going to rewatch it pretty soon, but I wanted to link it so all of you could watch it:



http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/divided/etc/view.html

46 minutes long, but worth it.

Essentially this is about discrimination and an experiment a teacher did the day after Martin Luther King was assassinated with her 3rd grade class. She 'divided' the class with a social maneuver, by labeling people with this color of eyes 'better' than people of the other color of eyes. If you watch you will be able to see how such an attitude when granted by authorities can give kids a different attitude and how it overall effected the life of the kids when they grew up as adults and their view to things such as racism.

I personally, found it very touching.

I would like personal opinions from people who have seen this or are going to watch it now- reviews of this film are also welcome. I believe it will breed an interesting discussion.

Did you here about the reaction she got around her home town? Apparently a lot of the people around there like hate her and think she traumatized the kids she did this too. Despite the fact that they protest this fact.

She said her self though that it takes someone especially skilled to do that without traumatizing the kids.

Yeah I really liked the movie and was surprised that it so profoundly affected the kids.

 

[Morgain]

it is really an amazing movie.This exercise has been done in many ways but I think this is really a good one because each group has experienced now how it is to be majority and minority.

It thought I wasn't discriminating but seeing this, I realise that we do it every day. It is very easy to group certain people based on a caracteristic and say that they are less intelligent, bad listeners, etc. And it is not only done based on physical aspects. How many times have you been in a situation (like in school) where someone was left out of the group because the group thought she/he was not so good enough, funny enough to play with. And how difficult is it when you are in "the good group" to go against the group and hang out with this person. Because if you do so, you will also be discriminated and people would also think you are nog good or funny enough to play with.

I was also amazed that this labeling influenced the test results. So in fact, by discriminating people we force them to act a certain way. If we say they are dumb, they will act dumber. When we say they are law breakers they well become law brokers. And the other way around. So in fact by discriminating we influence the success of someones live very heavily. This is really disturbing I think!

 

[enfp can be shy]

This exercise has been done in many ways

Yes! By different scientists in different other settings. It is quite solid by now. I also agree with the rest of your post.