A Class Divided Unites a Community
By Gregory Cioffi
EDI 550/551 Psychology of Adolescent Students
School of Education
Long Island University, C. W. Post
June 11, 2009
I am absolutely enthralled with this documentary A Class Divided . What that teacher did took a certain degree of dedication and courage that is rarely seen. In three days she gave students a life long lesson on discrimination. In her eyes, after the death of Martin Luther King Jr., the only way to truly drill the evil of discrimination and racism into the heads of her students was to divide the class against each other and make them experience first hand the malice that many of them had nonchalantly talked about in the beginning of the film against people who were different from them. In only a few days you could see blue eyed students and brown eyed students turn against one another, and turn into “nasty, discriminating children.” It was actually a little scary to watch as they were manipulated so easily. It made me think of the holocaust and Nazi Germany, and how something like this is possible.
Then I thought about how impossible it would be to do something like this today, and the thought of that seemed a little disappointing. I think I enjoy the hands-on activities because something like this those children will never forget. And not only will they not forget, but as adults they come back and watch that video with their teacher a number of years later, and that is just amazing. It is nice to see when a teacher has this kind of affect on her students and receives the recognition she deserves.
Long Island University, C. W. Post
June 11, 2009
I am absolutely enthralled with this documentary A Class Divided . What that teacher did took a certain degree of dedication and courage that is rarely seen. In three days she gave students a life long lesson on discrimination. In her eyes, after the death of Martin Luther King Jr., the only way to truly drill the evil of discrimination and racism into the heads of her students was to divide the class against each other and make them experience first hand the malice that many of them had nonchalantly talked about in the beginning of the film against people who were different from them. In only a few days you could see blue eyed students and brown eyed students turn against one another, and turn into “nasty, discriminating children.” It was actually a little scary to watch as they were manipulated so easily. It made me think of the holocaust and Nazi Germany, and how something like this is possible.
Then I thought about how impossible it would be to do something like this today, and the thought of that seemed a little disappointing. I think I enjoy the hands-on activities because something like this those children will never forget. And not only will they not forget, but as adults they come back and watch that video with their teacher a number of years later, and that is just amazing. It is nice to see when a teacher has this kind of affect on her students and receives the recognition she deserves.
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