The videos that were assigned for this unit had very personal accounts of experiences with white privilege and also an exercise that forced children and adults to consider discrimination. The second video, A Class Divided, really made me think about how easily people, not just children, can be brainwashed into believe or doing something they know is wrong. The teacher in that video had her students turned against each other in a matter of minutes. I can only image how it must have been in Nazi Germany looking back at unit 1. Young people are very impressionable and the look up to adults. If society encourages discriminator behavior it would spread like wild fire, but if all of society were to do the opposite would discrimination disappear?
I think the experiment was a little risk to do on children. The teacher herself said it could be damaging if done incorrectly. It seems that the risk was worth it because as you see in the video those students who are know adults still remember and are pasting on what they had learned. Those individuals know that you don’t judge someone but looks or stereotypes, but on who they are.
I think you raise a good point in asking if discrimination would disappear if all of society were to discourage it. Personally, I think it would be very difficult if not impossible to change the mind of society as a whole. I don't think we are necessarily encouraging racism, just that it has been bred into certain people and they are spreading it whether they realize it or not.
ReplyDeleteI also had similar thought about the damaging effects the experiment could have on the kids. I think it definitely was worth it because they obviously took her message to heart since they remembered what they learned for all those years and teach the same values to their children. I would love to see another experiment like this be done again to see if the effects would be the same.
ReplyDeleteThe video also made me realize how easily people's thoughts can be manipulated to behave a certain way. Those kids were brainwashed in minutes. I agree that this experiment was risky because of a number of things. I don't think an experiment like this could be allowed to happen in today's world simply because people would be afraid of the risks.
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