Watch the documentary, “A Class Divided” and write a two page reflection paper.
ID: 460530 • Letter: W
Question
Watch the documentary, “A Class Divided” and write a two page reflection paper.
What did you think of the “experiment”?
What were three events/occurrences to which you had a reaction? (either positive or negative).
What do you think would happen if a teacher attempted the same “experiment” today?
What else would you like to know about the “experiment” or the days that followed?
I have provided you some questions for thought. You may choose to answer those questions or reflect on the documentary in other ways. You may also choose to reflect on the video in terms of how you think you would have reacted as a child – or, if you have children, how you think your kids would respond . . . or your little brother/sister/cousin, etc.
Explanation / Answer
The experiment is pretty simple and yet capable of having a long lasting impact on the minds of young children. It was also conducted at the right time, at a time when assassination of Martin Luther King had taken place. This would mean that the news is fresh on the minds of the children at the time of experiment.
Firstly, if the experiment is conducted in today’s society, there would be lot of media noise, law suits and people being offended as they don’t understand the essence of the experiment. Most likely, the teacher would be fired. As a matter of fact, the teacher had to face a lot of criticism and negative attitude of the people even at the time she conducted the experiment. But it is not something that was hard to not expect. People always see new ideas and changes with scepticism.
The discrimination that was present at the Seventies still exist even today, may be in a much milder manner in terms of discrimination based on colour, but there are other forms of discrimination still present and new kinds popping every now and then. There are a variety of discriminations present in our society, discriminations based on religion, country, social class, salary, age, physical appearance, culture, colour, sex and what not. Society over a period of time has made so may invisible but strong walls among its own people that it has become near impossible for people to address an issue without being conscious of what they are speaking is politically correct or not. It is important that people should realize that problems cannot be dealt with unless they are first accepted as problems in the open. An these kind of experiments not only help young kids in understanding right from wrong, but also helps in society to know how much of progress it made over a period in addressing the issue.
If the results of the experiment that is conducted today are analysed, probably will be the same as the first one. Because, the basic human nature of response to situations hasn’t changed that much over this period – we still have racial discrimination problem right! The children may react the same way the kids of that generation reacted, but it would also teach the same lesson that the earlier kids learned. Colour or any kind of simpler discrimination cannot be a factor in judging one’s capability and that it is wrong to discriminate.
The experiment showed the effect of discrimination based on eye colour had on children and their performance in tests. This mirrors exactly the behaviour of our society at large. Black people were considered as inferior race for ages and the experiment results show how this is exactly the same in real world scenarios. This kind of experiment should be encouraged more in our society for our kids to know how to differentiate right from wrong. Personally, I would like to know of the improvements in the way in which this experiment is conducted. Being a crude experiment, it would have had lot of factors that might have not been considered to analyse the end result. The experiment only showed how kids reacted to situation but did not address why. An advanced study of the experiment would probably reveal more information on why people behave in the way they do. This would help society at large to plan countermeasure to remove the problem from active society.
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