RICEVILLE - The third-graders in Jane Elliott's Riceville classroom were scheduled to study an American Indian meditation on April 5, 1968.

But the night before - after learning that civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. had been assassinated in Memphis - Elliott tweaked the assignment.

"We were supposed to learn the Sioux Indian prayer that says: 'Oh Great Spirit, keep me from ever judging a man until I've walked a mile in his moccasins,'" she said. "I made the decisions that if my students didn't seem to understand the reason (behind the assassination), then not only would I teach them that prayer, but I would arrange to have it answered for them."

What followed became one of the most famous lessons in American education. After discussing discrimination with her students, Elliott divided her class based on eye color. During the first day of the exercise, Elliott's brown-eyed students were given a privileged status. They moved their desks to the front of the classroom, cut in line at the cafeteria and received praise for their superiority. Meanwhile, the needs of blue-eyed students were brushed aside, and those youngsters' inequalities were pointed out for all to see.

"Immediately, within 15 minutes, I created a microcosm of society," said Elliott, who assigned dominance to blue-eyed students on day two of the activity. "I didn't think that my third graders would know how to act like racists, but they exhibited all the behaviors that you see every day in an adult racist society: contempt, arrogance, desire to watch others suffer, joy at being on top."

This year marks the 40th anniversary of the so-called "brown eyes/blue eyes" exercise. Thousands of individuals from across the country and overseas have participated in similar lessons since Elliott introducd the concept in her Iowa classroom. Today, the 75-year-old, who splits her time between Osage and California, continues to led the lesson at schools and corporations across the world.

Rex Kozak, of LeGrand, underwent the exercise in Elliott's 1970 third grade class. Now an administrator at East Marshall High School, Kozak says he still reflects on the "brown eyes/blues eyes" lesson.

"As a principal, it factors into a lot of the decision-making that I go through on a day-to-day basis," Kozak said. "It teaches you something about fairness that's hard to shake."

Participants feel the full effect of the lesson when they transition from belonging to the superior group to the inferior group, he said.

"It's really amazing how you can take a kid one day who's flying high and just by manipulating what you told him the day before, you can take him down very quickly," Kozak said. "It made me realize that there's good in everyone, even if you have to spend a little extra time looking for it."

Michael Blackwell, director for multicultural education at the University of Northern Iowa, said just watching films of Elliott's exercise teaches people how easily prejudice can thrive in the right environment.

"It's a little frightening, actually, because you see the people who are told they are better just internalizing that feeling," said Blackwell. "Then, at the same time, you see the people who are treated poorly believing that they are inferior. It's hard to watch."

After 40 years conducting the "brown eyes/blue eyes" exercise, Elliott says she is no longer surprised at the results of her in-classroom activity. She is, however, dismayed that the racially divided environment she creates during the lesson is still so prominent in society.

For that reason, the educator plans to continue conducting diversity lectures and workshops.

"This exercise inoculates you against racism for the rest of your life," Elliott said. "? It has the capacity for changing your life forever in a positive way."

Contact Mary Stegmeir at (319) 291-1482 or mary.stegmeir@wcfcourier.com.