A Class Divided

I chose a class divided because I wanted to see how kids handled being segregated from each other. This documentary relates to unit three by demonstrating the civil liberties we all should have as Americans no matter what color your eyes or skin are. In August of 1984, a teacher, Mrs. Elliot, gave a two-day lesson about discrimination and segregation to her third grade class after Martin Luther King Jr. was killed. The same class came back almost fourteen years later for a class reunion. During which, they watched the film. The teacher divided the classroom by eye color – brown and blue eyes. Mrs. Elliot told the kids since her eyes were blue, the blue-eyed group are superior. The brown-eyed group had to wear a collar so they could be identified as so from a distance. They get five extra minutes at recess, they are smarter than the brown-eyed children are, and they get to go to lunch first. The brown-eyed group did not get to play with the blue-eyed children even though some were best friends. The brown eyes also did not get to drink from the water fountain; instead, they had to use paper cups. They did not get to go back for seconds at lunch so there would be enough for the blue-eyed children. At recess, the brown-eyed children said they felt like everything bad was happening to them. They felt like if they did anything other than stand against the wall, they would get in trouble. While outside, a blue-eyed kid came over to one of them and called him “brown eyes”. The brown-eyed kid became so infuriated that he punched his blue-eyed best friend in the stomach. When they got back to class, the teacher wanted to discuss the incident that had taken place. The brown-eyed kid said it did not make him feel any better after punching his friend and it did not change the situation he was in with being “different”. The next day in class, the rolls changed. The blue eyes were now inferior while the brown eyes were superior. The brown-eyed children gladly and