Parents’ Promise

You may recall the highly publicized experiment conducted by a young primary-grade teacher. With the approval of her pupils’ parents, she told her class that “recent scientific reports had verified that children with blue eyes have greater natural learning abilities than children with brown eyes.” She had them make up little signs designating themselves as “blue eyes” or “brown eyes,” which they then hung around their necks. After a week or so, the achievement level of the brown-eyed group fell measurably, while the performance of the blue-eyed section improved significantly. She then made a startling announcement to the class. She had made a mistake! It was the blue-eyed people who were the weaker students and the brown-eyed ones who were stronger students. Up went the image and achievement of the brown-eyed group. Down came the performance of the blue-eyed children. Then the teacher presented the results of the experiment to the mothers and fathers as an object lesson in parenting: Just as a child’s self…