Question

1.A Class Divided Documentary film-overall reaction.

2.What scene or scenes do you think you'll still remember a month from now and why those scenes? Did any part of the film surprise you?

Answer 1

Note: This response is in UK English, please paste the response to MS Word and you should be able to spot discrepancies easily. You may elaborate the answer based on personal views or your classwork if necessary.

(Answer) ‘A Class Divided’ is a PBS Frontline documentary where a teacher gives the children of her class an exercise in prejudice during the 1970's. More than a decade later, those children are brought together in order to learn how that exercise in their early stages of life affected their views on prejudice.

The classroom featured in this film is made up of Caucasian children. They are aware of the racism toward the African Americans and the Native Americans. However, since they are white and don’t particularly face that kind of prejudice every day, they don’t really understand what it entails.

The scene that is quite prominent in this film is when the other students actually look at situations from the perspective of the races that face prejudice. The teacher creates a divide amongst the students by saying that the blue-eyed kids are far superior to the brown-eyed kids.

After a while, there is a little hostility in class because the blue-eyed kids bully the brown-eyed kids who end up in brawls because their sentiments are hurt. This is when the children are told that this situation is similar to the racism that America was facing in the 70’s. They realised the futility of the difference in the colour of the eyes. Furthermore, they equated this futility to the colour difference with the skin.

Therefore, the most memorable part of the film was when these young children realised something that adults perhaps considered for centuries – the futility of a racial divide.