Coach Jack Kammer examines the boy crisis through Jane Elliott's famous Blue-Eyes/Brown-Eyes classroom exercise from 1984, where children treated as inferior performed worse on reading tasks, then improved instantly when the hierarchy reversed. The video suggests perceived inferiority may drive boys' struggles and offers a simple action viewers can take.
Hi, I'm Coach Kammer. Thanks for watching the Our Comeback Channel. Lots of boys and young men are struggling in school, at work, with the law, and with life in general. That struggle is called the boy crisis, and we're going to look at it in a new way. Stay tuned. You're about to see two related but different looks at one possible cause of the boy crisis. If you like what they have to say, stick around for the end screens because they offer a free and easy, simple way you might be able to help the boys in your life if you think they're affected by the problem we talk about here. Thanks for watching.
August 1984. A high school reunion brings some 50 former students to Riceville, Iowa.
Great problem. Great problem.
14 years earlier, when they were students in her third-grade classroom, NBC News filmed a 2-day exercise for a documentary, "The Eye of the Storm." Now, at their request, they will see that film again and relive the experience of her unique lesson in discrimination.
It might be interesting to judge people today by the color of their eyes. Would you like to try this? Yeah! Sounds like fun, doesn't it? This is a fact: blue-eyed people are better than brown-eyed people. The brown-eyed people do not get to use the drinking fountain. You'll have to use the paper cups. You brown-eyed people are not to play with the blue-eyed people on the playground because you are not as good as blue-eyed people. The brown-eyed people in this room today are going to wear collars so that we can tell from a distance what color your eyes are. Scary. On page 127. 100? 127. Is everyone ready? Everyone but Laurie. Ready, Laurie? Brown-eyed. She's a brown-eyed. You'll begin to notice today that we spend a great deal of time waiting for brown-eyed people. Who goes first to lunch? The blue-eyed people. No brown-eyed people go back for seconds. Blue-eyed people may go back for seconds. Brown-eyed people do not. Why don't they like brown-eyed? Don't you know? Oh, they're not smart.
Is that the only reason?
It might take too much. Okay, quietly. And it seemed like when we were down on the bottom, everything bad was happening to us. The way they treated you, you felt like you didn't even want to try to do anything. I told you that brown-eyed people aren't as good as blue-eyed people. That wasn't true. I lied to you yesterday. The truth is that brown-eyed people are better than blue-eyed people. The brown-eyed people may take off their collars, and each of you may put your collar on a blue-eyed person. The brown-eyed people get 5 extra minutes of recess. You blue-eyed people are not allowed to be on the playground equipment at all. Any time. You blue-eyed people are not to play with the brown-eyed people. Brown-eyed people are better than blue-eyed people. They're smarter than blue-eyed people. And if you don't believe it, look at Brian. Do blue-eyed people know how to sit in a chair? Very sad. Very, very sad. Who can tell me what contraction should be in the first sentence? Go to the board and write it, John. Come on, let's do it again. Loosen up. Up, up, up. Come on. That's better. Now, do you know how to make a W? Okay, write the contraction for we are. Now that's beautiful writing. Is that better? Yes! Brown-eyed people learn fast, don't they? Boy, do brown-eyed people learn fast. Very good. Greg, what did you do with that cup? Will you please go and get that cup and put your name on it and keep it at your desk? Blue-eyed people are wasteful. Okay, you want to be timed this morning? Yeah. A. I use Orton-Gillingham Phonics. We use the card pack, and the children The brown-eyed children were in the low class the first day, and it took them 5.5 minutes to get through the card pack. The second day, it took them 2.5 minutes. The only thing that had changed was the fact that now they were superior people. You went faster than I've ever had anyone go through the card pack. Why couldn't you get them yesterday? We were brown-eyed. We had our collars on. You think the collars kept you from— I just keep thinking about those collars. Oh. My eyes kept rolling around. Oh, and you couldn't think as well with the collars on. 4 minutes and 18 seconds. I knew we weren't going to make it. How long did it take you yesterday? 3 minutes. 3 minutes. How long did it take you today? 4 minutes and 18 seconds. What happened? Went down. Why? What were you thinking of? This. The way they treated you, you felt like you didn't even want to try to do anything.
