Tuesday, August 06, 2002

We are headed to Iowa this weekend.  On our way there we will pass close to a town called Riceville.  Riceville is where, in 1968 a schoolteacher named Jane Elliot told her third graders that brown eyed people were superior to blue eyed people and that they shouldn't sit near them or play with them.   The blue-eyed kids became depressed and unable to perform well.  The brown-eyed kids were on top of the world and abusing the blue-eyed kids.  The next day she told them that she made a mistake and the opposite was really true.  The kids immediately reversed their roles.  This instantly learned prejudice was a revelation to the kids.  Jane Elliot got famous for this and several documentaries were made, but her town turned against her.  They boycotted her parent's restaurant.  They beat up her kids.  They stopped speaking to her.  I wanted to stop by Riceville and vandalize some stuff on the the way to the wedding we are attending, but as Kate pointed out, every town is Riceville.  11:27:51 PM    comment []