Synopsis of the film "A class divided" - De tolerancia.org
A CLASS DIVIDED, produced and directed by William Peters, Charlie Cobb and Diana Edmonds, for the WGBH Educational Foundation ( Boston, USA), Yale University Films. 1985. Color. 55 minutes. FRONTLINE program, to which the film is produced by Public Broadcasting Service, PBS Video for a consortium of American public television. The
film shows both the implementation and the results of an exercise discrimination based on eye color in two different groups: first with children in 3rd. grade * belonging to a white Christian community in northeastern Iowa, and second with adult workers in the state prison system in Iowa, during a workshop on human relations in a day.
The film begins with the gathering of alumni from 3rd. grade, have now become young adults, with their teacher, Jane Elliott, the school building, located in Riceville, Iowa, where he lived Catoca years before the experience of a lesson discrimination of a duration of two days. Gathered in a classroom, they see a television documentary, THE EYE OF THE STORM, on that year for which they were divided into two groups according they had blue or brown eyes. After seeing the film, former students, some accompanied by their spouses and their children, Jane Elliott discusses the impact that lesson had on their lives, their behavior and their beliefs. A CLASS DIVIDED
followed with open discussion between the internal color of a maximum security prison, located north of New York, they have just seen the previous film in a sociology class. Their reactions to the film THE EYE OF THE STORM, and comments on the influence of an exercise of that kind would have had on their lives leads to a sequence in which Jane Elliott directs the Office of the color of the eyes in a group of workers from the Department of Iowa Corrections. At year end, the prison employees discuss their reactions to discriminatory attitudes and behavior treatment that just experienced.
The film ends with the explanation, by Jane Elliott, of the reasons they did implement an exercise in which students experience real discrimination (as opposed to methods that have greater acceptance, and materials which trains about racism), and expresses the hope that others will use this amazing technique but really effective.
* Third Grade Children in the American school system, has 9 years correspond roughly to those of 4e of GBS in our school system.
SEE PART OF THE DOCUMENTARY:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u8s1K-hKucM&feature=player_embedded
