Brown Eyes VS. Blue Eyes

This was a wonderful depiction of how race has formed and shaped people for centuries. The teacher wanted to teach children how it felt to be superior and inferior to others within their same class room. The part that I found most interesting was when the brown eyed children took five minutes to go through the stack of cards when they were inferior to the blue eyed kids, and the next day when they were superior, it only took them two minutes. That really shows what confidence can do for a child. They perform better if they think that they are adequate enough. Not only can this metaphor be used in terms of race, but also should be looked at in terms of school in general. If teachers are rewarding and encouraging, more times than not, the students will respond well to that, and do better. However, if the children lack confidence in school, they will tend to do worse or "give up" in a sense.
This experiment was pertaining to race, in which at the end of the video you can see how the perception of the children changed since feeling how African Americans felt at that time. In the beginning of the video, the children said that people of a different color were "dumb", "useless", and other various things. Once they were called those exact names, and were treated like "caged animals," they changed their entire outlook about race. At the end, the children were joined arm in arm and saying that we shouldn't judge someone by their skin color.
I think it would very beneficial if more experiments like this were done from that time until now. It takes being put into someone else's shoes for you to change your perception on life. I also wonder how the parents felt on day one, when the brown eyed children had to go through on the first day with discrimination. I think that if something like this experiment were to happen now, parents would cause a huge uproar and the teacher would get into huge trouble. The experiment is very beneficial but a lot of close minded individuals can't see the big picture.
What do you think would have to be done if an experiment like this was done in this day and age? What types of measures would the teacher have to go through in order to not lose his/her job? Do you think this concept of not judging people based on their skin color stuck with these children throughout their life?

I-Quest

As many of my peers have done, I, too, wanted to focus on the very powerful class discussion we had last Thursday during our outside lecture reflecting on Crafton's chapter in her book. I think that reading her chapter and for us to learn a deeper side of our teacher, we, too, felt that we could open up and share similar experiences that we feel shaped us into who we have become/are becoming. I wanted to take a step back and listen to our stories from a perspective other than someone who comes from a middle class Midwestern family. All of our stories were pretty similar in certain aspects - most of us have dealt with religion, have encouraging parents, and were able enough to attend a University. I understand that not everyone's story is like this in our class, and I'm not trying to group us into a stereotype. However, if you were to take a class similar to this in the inner city of New York City, I think that our "I-Quest" discussion would have been completely different than how ours went. They have a whole set of different problems, concerns, and perceptions than we do. Having said that, I do think that depending on where you grew up and the culture you were brought into has a lot to say about who you become as a person. Most of our parents most likely went to college, thus, felt strongly about us attending college as well - so we did just that. From personal experience, both of my parents went to college and not going to college was never a question for me. I knew from a very young age, that I would most definitely attend college. I'm not sure that same belief is shared in other parts of the United States. If you were a child growing up in the inner city of New York City and in your late teens moved to the Midwest, I think it would almost be a culture shock. Their influences of NYC would still be present because that's all they know.

So going off this assumption, I wonder what a child would be like if they were brought up by two culturally different parents. Let's say a parent from Europe and an American parent, what kind of confusion would that child have as far as values/beliefs/etc? Americans and Europeans have different approaches to life and the way of living, being around both sets of "cultural norms" could make for an interesting upbringing.

Methods of Learning

The past week we discussed in class the different methods of learning. There are generally two types, or at least two types we focused on. These were Transmission and The Social Learning Model. We came to the realization during class that Transmission doesn't typically help someone learn the material, whereas Social Learning model helps people talk through the material for a complete and better understanding of the topics addressed. From my personal experiences, I always notice that I never really retain the information from lecture or "Transmission" based classes. I can learn the material for a semester, but after that it doesn't really stick as well. I also notice that I tend to try to memorize the material during those classes instead of truly understand it. Since I am a Communications major, the classes I've been taking my last two years have been using the Social Learning Model, and I'm grateful for that because this is the type of information that I really do need to stick for my future career. I think that Transmission method can be effective for some students, but it is an easy way for people to lose concentration during the lecture, or to not take in the information as well. However, with the Social Learning Method you are able to talk through the material and really grasp the understanding of it through communication. This makes me wonder how larger lecture classes could try to combine these two methods to perhaps help students to take what they learn with them after the class is over. What do you think would help you learn better in a large lecture based class? What other methods from the Social Learning Model could be taken and used in a Transmission based class?