One of the things that most affects how we interact with oth

One of the things that most affects how we interact with other people is their social identities.  From gender to race to disability status to looks and many other types of social identity, we use social identities as ‘shortcuts’ to tell us how to treat another person.  Even more importantly, the treatment we give other people based on these shortcuts can have major-even devastating–effects, even when the interaction seems fairly minor. To illustrate how much we base social interaction on the social identities of those we are interacting with (even when we know them well), and how much this interaction really matters, I’d like you to watch a film about a very famous ‘experiment’ 3rd -grade teacher Jane Elliott first undertook with her Iowa students in the 1960s.  In the version you are going to watch, you’ll see this experiment and the students’ behavior depicted, as well as learn what those students, now adults, feel today about what they experienced.Click on the link below, or alternately, copy and paste it into your browser to play. This video is divided into 10 minute chunks, make sure to watch all of them. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/divided/etc/view.htmlReflection on A Class DividedAfter you have watched the film, please write a response (one page or longer, typed and double-spaced) discussing your reactions to what you saw.  You can share your personal reactions, your questions about what you saw, insights into what this ‘experiment’ teaches us about social construction of reality, social interaction and social identity, social inequality, authority or anything else you’d like to discuss (especially the implication of experiment).  I will grade it based on the thoughtfulness of your analysis and response, including the quality of your sociological insights.