¶ … third grade children of the class bought into the premise that they were superior or inferior based solely on the color of their eyes and the actions of the teacher. Though I knew prejudice was a learned behavior I was astonished at how readily the behavior was adopted. Elliot's comment at the end of the first day, "I watched what had been marvelous, cooperative, wonderful, thoughtful children turn into nasty, vicious, discriminating little third graders in the space of fifteen minutes," underscored the power that suggestion has over belief.

Expectations are a powerful motivation for both success and failure. The fact that children were able to get though their phonics card pack more quickly when they believed they were smarter is very significant when you think about it. It implies that you are what you believe you are. Though this may sound simple...

The change in group dynamics such as name calling, fighting, indifference to others feelings and so forth, as well as the sense of entitlement that was readily adopted by the group with favored status and the submission of the group not in favor was enthralling. The speed in which roles were reversed from Tuesday to Wednesday was startling.
The video led me to think about the Civil Rights movement, and the role of race in American history. It is disturbing to think of the suffering inflicted upon a class of people simply because of the color of their skin. One can only wonder how different our society might be today if we had not tolerated almost two hundred years of oppression aimed at people of minority status.…