Women are victims of discrimination. But so are men – blacks, whites, Asians – and the list could continue endlessly.Unfortunately, sensitivity training seems to be ineffective unless it is presented in an all-out, “keep it real” atmosphere, one that forces people out of their comfort zones, makes them confront issues head-on and think in ways they have never thought before.But can this somewhat offensive, politically-incorrect teaching methodology actually work?Well, a group of kids in a small town learned it can indeed work. During the 1960s, all-white, all-Christian Riceville, Iowa was blessed with a teacher named Jane Elliott who taught at a local elementary school. Elliott originated the “Blue Eyes, Brown Eyes” experiment that was designed to teach about discrimination by actually discriminating against participants.Shortly after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Elliott said of her third-grade class, “I want them to a know at least a little bit about how it feels to be stepped upon.”During the first of two days in her legendary experiment, Elliott’s class discriminated against those with brown eyes.She told her class Tuesday, “This is a fact. Blue-eyed people are better than brown-eyed people.”Much to their dismay, the brown-eyed kids began to shake their heads in shame and disapproval.Elliott also told her students the brown-eyed kids could not drink out of the water fountain; they had to use cups. In addition, blue-eyed kids had an extra five minutes of recess, and they could not play with the brown-eyed kids because brown-eyed kids were thought to be inferior.Elliott also said, “The brown-eyed people are going to wear collars so that we can tell from a distance what color their eyes are.”One boy went so far as to recommend beating his brown-eyed classmates with a yard stick if they “got out of line.”During recess, a fight broke out. Elliott asked what happened.One boy said, “Russell called me names, so I hit him in the gut.”Elliott replied, “What’s wrong with being called brown-eyed?”The boy said, “That’s just the same way as other people calling black people niggers.”Finishing a grueling first day, Elliott sadly admitted that she had just “watched what had been marvelous, cooperative, wonderful, thoughtful children turn into nasty, vicious, discriminating little third-graders in a space of 15 minutes.””We removed their inhibitions and they were ghastly,” she said. “We didn’t like one another by the end of the day.”Wednesday, the tables turned. Elliott said, “The brown-eyed people can take off their collars. Each of you gets to place it on a blue-eyed person.”Then, she said that she was wrong on Tuesday. She told her class that “brown-eyed people are better than blue-eyed people, smarter than blue-eyed people, and if you don’t believe it look at Brian.” Brian was playing in his chair and not paying attention. Elliott asked, “Do blue-eyed people know how to sit in a chair? Very sad.”Brian’s countenance drastically changed from the preceding day, looking furious, almost demonic in his anger.Consequently, anger for brown-eyed students soon turned to bliss.Daily, the class went through a card pack to help them learn words.Tuesday, the brown-eyed people took five and a half minutes to go through it. But, Wednesday it took them only two and a half. Elliott said, “The only thing that had changed was the fact that now they were superior people.”However, the time it took the blue-eyed kids to go through the pack jumped from three minutes on Tuesday to four minutes and 18 seconds.One blue-eyed student said, “We just kept thinking about the collars.”Later, Wednesday, Elliott revealed the true motivation behind her actions.She said, “This is a filthy, nasty word called discrimination. We’re treating people a certain way because they’re different from the rest of us.””Is that fair?,” she asked. The kids abruptly responded with a “No!”After the experiment, one student said he felt “like a dog on a leash.” Another said he felt “like they locked him up in prison and threw away the key.”Remarkably, in just two days, Elliott’s students learned a lesson not yet grasped by many adults.But the key is not to prevent this type of treatment. It should be encouraged. Because you never know a man until you walk a mile in his shoes, or, in this case, his collar. But remember, some of us can’t take our collars off.

Michael A. Norman may be reached at [email protected] for comments. His column will appear on Wednesdays of Spring Quarter.