A lesson in discrimination

Tonight the Belgium tv Een screened a documentary of an experiment that took place at Annie Leblanc's homogeneous classroom at primary school of Saint-Valérien-of-Milton, in Montérégie, Quebec, Canada. Each year there's always a scapegoat in her 3rd year classroom. This year it is Pierre-Luc who is obese.

So what a teacher can do...

She used the segregation experiment done by Jane Elliot back in 1968 in her classroom. The experiment took place in two days. On the first day, She told her pupils that the smaller (under1.34m) children were intelligent, faster, wiser and more creative. In short, they were better. On the second day it was the bigger children who were better. Very soon the children adapted to the roles. At the end of the day both Jane Elliot's & Anne Leblanc's pupils were all behaving like 'victims and torturers'.

The good news is, after 3 weeks, the film crew went back to the school, and it seems the lesson has been learned. The pupils learn about discrimination and the effect of it and also the connection between encouragements and the self-esteem. They treat Pierre-Luc differently, they even stood up for him.

I found this experiment very interesting and powerful, seeing how quick and easy discriminating behavior can emerge in children. I wish my elementary school did this. I can recall one incident on the 3rd grade, when a new girl just got transfered to our midst. One boy refused to be in the same class with her because she has different religion belief than the rest of the pupils. I was furious with his behavior. In the end both stayed in the same class, but I can't recall they really talked to each other. I cant blame her, he was an a**e.

To see Jane Elliot's blue eyes v. brown eyes experiment you can click here, for the transcript click here
To see Anne Leblanc's you can click here (in French)