Each Question needs to be 250 words in length Minimum.
Discussion Question #1 – due by day 3
FIRST, Ian McFeat describes a participatory experiment in “Tackling Tracking,” (Koppelman, “Perspectives” p. 306), a “teach-in” where students and faculty come together to learn more about the invisible hierarchies of race and class that exist in their school, in their community, and in America.
NEXT, After reading “Tackling Tracking” by McFeat, watch the PBS Frontline documentary: “A Class Divided”, the classic study of the third grade class experiment of the “blue eyes” and “brown eyes.” Keywords: “A Class Divided” and PBSFrontline
Using a search engine, find information on the historic “blue eye, brown eye” experiment of Jane Elliot in Riceville, Iowa after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. PBS did a Frontlineseries called “A Class Divided” that can be viewed online (there is also a written transcript). The later series was called “Eye of the Storm”. It is a fascinating “experiment” on just how easily people can be swayed to view others, and the effect that it has on esteem and performance.
THEN, respond to the following set of questions (for full points, you must discuss both):
- In both of these, do students realize, at first, that there are groups?
- When the teacher explains the purpose of the groups, how do the students respond to the lessons?
- How are students changed by the experiences?
- Do you feel “A Class Divided” was an ethical exercise with third graders? Could it be done in today’s schools?
- Do you feel that making students feel part of a certain group (as in tracking or the “blue-eye/brown-eye experiment”) affects performance? Explain.
Discussion Question #2 – due by day 5
One of the goals of the civil rights movement was to ensure equal opportunity for every U.S. citizen, regardless of race. When the civil rights movement began, the legal system did not grant the same rights to blacks and other minorities as it did to whites. Today, those laws have been changed, leading some to argue that the U.S. has achieved a level playing field for all. Consider what Koppelman has to say in Chapter 8 about cultural racism, the idea of a level playing field, and institutional discrimination, and information gleaned from your Perspectivesarticles, and then respond to the following questions:
- Do you think the playing field has been leveled? If so, to what extent and if so, what evidence supports this?
- Is there evidence that race-based privilege and institutional racism still factor into hiring decisions? If so, how?
- How was affirmative action policy crafted to address issues of privilege? Has it been successful?
- What would be the danger in everyone assuming that the playing field is level?
