Week 11 - A Class Divided

1) I was very surprised by the students' reactions. At the beginning of the video, the kids seem like nice, normal people. But halfway through the "experiment", best friends are nemeses and people who didn't like each other from the start now had allies in those of the same eye color.

2) It proves human nature isn't as resilient to this type of conditioning as people thought. Many of us think this conditioning is horrid and outside of the realm of possibilities affecting us but the reality is that most of us could be made to believe something that isn't true solely because it has been repeated over and over by others. It also goes to show how malleable children's minds are and that adults need to be careful as to what teachings are introduced into their child's education.

3) Well, this experiment would obviously vary from city to city but taking metro-Atlanta as a possibility, I think this experiment would be less effective considering the amount of diversity. Growing up I had all types of friends: black, Asian, Hispanic, white, and even Indian. So from a young age, that type of "diversity = equality" thinking had been instilled in me from a young age. I don't think that experiment would take much hold in the more urban areas of a city simply because kids are more likely to be exposed to different cultures early on and learn to accept those cultures growing up.